Delineating clinical privileges.

Clinical privilege delineation is essential in assuring quality care and minimizing the liability exposure of an institution and its staff. Approaches to privilege delineation include: delineation by practitioner specialty; delineation by patient risk categories; delineation using a list of procedures; and approaches combining these three methods. Regardless of the approach taken, the key to effective privilege delineation is that specific written criteria be applied uniformly to all individuals. Some of the difficulties encountered in the privilege delineation process involve granting privileges for new procedures, monitoring compliance with privileges, and granting privileges that may be performed by members of several departments.