Commonwealth Credentialing Closes after Nearly a Quarter Century of Service
By Christopher Hickey, LMS EVP/CEO
Commonwealth Credentialing, the Lexington Medical Society’s centralized verification office (CVO), closed on August 4th, 2023, after nearly a quarter century of service. Commonwealth Credentialing was created to fill a need in the community to streamline the credentialing process with a common application and procedures. The idea was initiated by Dr. Andy Moore during his presidency in 1992. The project gained momentum during Dr. John Stewart’s presidency of 1997 when the challenging work of gaining hospital concurrence and support occurred. Dr. Lyle Dalton’s presidency of 1998 brought the project to the finish line, culminating in the approved for creation and naming of Commonwealth Credentialing in December 1998 by the Fayette County Medical Society (previous name for LMS) Executive Committee. Commonwealth Credentialing was officially opened on May 17, 1999.
The healthcare strategic environment, over the years, changed to where more physicians were employed by healthcare systems, lessening the need to have a common credentialing system. Our community hospitals created their internal credentialing offices which are now operational.
We would like to thank the many physicians who were instrumental in creating and supporting Commonwealth Credentialing through the years. Drs. Tom Ferguson, John Fox, and John Stewart led the effort to coordinate with the community hospitals to open the CVO. Dr. David Bensema served as the CVO physician director when it expanded to take on allied health. Carolyn Kurz, the longest serving LMS EVP/CEO for over 43 years, led the staff effort to get the CVO operational. Andrea Tackett, who served 15 years as our credentialing manager, retiring at the end of 2021, led the way from transitioning our credentialing operation from paper-based to cloud-based credentialing software. Amber Stansberry, our last credentialing manager, further stream-lined the process to nearly paperless. We would like to thank the rest of the Commonwealth Credentialing team since 1999: Lisa Adams Ames, Marcie Driver, Pat Goodenow, Sona Jewel, Anna King, E.J. Lankford, Tina Leininger, Cindy Madison, Diana Moore, Veronica Shephard, and Melanie Smyth.
Our final Commonwealth Credentialing team of Amber Stansberry, Sona Jewell, and Anna King have transitioned on. Amber and Anna were immediately hired by other organizations and are doing very well. Sona will officially retire after over 25 years of service to LMS at the end of September. Commonwealth Credentialing accomplished the mission for which it was created until the need was no longer required. We wish our community hospitals well as they continue the important credentialing function.
