Which term refers to credentialing criteria that originate from outside the hospital?

• A. External criteria
• B. Internal criteria
• C. Operational criteria
• D. Clinical criteria

Answer: (A)

Credentialing criteria that come from outside the hospital are external criteria. These external standards come from organizations and bodies beyond the hospital, such as specialty boards, state medical boards, or national accreditation and regulatory bodies. Using external criteria helps ensure clinicians meet widely recognized qualifications and legal or regulatory requirements, providing a consistent baseline across institutions. Internal criteria, by contrast, are developed within the hospital and reflect its own policies and local practices. Operational criteria describe how processes run, and clinical criteria pertain to the medical qualifications themselves; the key point here is that external criteria originate outside the hospital.