Q & A: Can the medical staff office provide applicants with pre-populated applications for initial appointment or reappointment?
Many organizations have started to pre-populate applications (both initial and for reappointment) for the convenience of the physicians. This practice, although convenient, can at times have unintended consequences if the applicant does not read the prep-populated fields thoroughly and carelessly attests to something that is not true.
While you may wish to pre-populate your applications with certain information, you should make it clear to the applicant that it is their responsibility to ensure that everything on the application (including pre-populated fields) is accurate, and that failure to do so could result in disciplinary action or charges of falsification. You should require the applicant to sign an attestation that the information provided on the application and associated documents is true, correct, and complete to the best of his or her knowledge.
