Your facility was well-credentialed during the Aug. 14 blackout that crippled a major part of the northeastern United States and Canada's Ontario province - but were you? You see, probably very few surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and technicians had to care for patients in darkness that day, thanks to credentialing requirements from organizations such as JCAHO, AAAHC and AAAASF.

Hospitals have alternative sources of power for just such incidents. Within seconds, back-up batteries kick in and emergency generators rumble to life, feeding current to critical areas such as operating suites. These safeguards are required as part of hospitals' certifications. Freestanding ASCs and office-based facilities also have varying standards for blackout protection based on their certifications from organizations such as JCAHO, AAAHC and AAAASF. One quad-A requirement is that any office-based facility in which anesthesia above local is used must provide two hours of battery back-up power.

Credentials of these facilities can be verified, and that's just good consumer protection. After all, isn't protecting the patient priority No. 1? Yet many patients are left in the dark when it comes to knowing who their doctors are, what they're qualified to do and how well-qualified they are.

Recently, I gave a patient a second opinion on a breast reduction. I asked the patient who the first doctor was, and she gave me the name of a nearby otolaryngologist. When I questioned the validity of an ENT surgeon recommending breast surgery, she became angry, thinking I was trying to mislead her. She produced her insurance book and showed me that he was a breast surgeon. But he's listed in the directory under plastic surgery because he said he was a plastic surgeon, not because he has any credentials as such.

In addition, we're used to a system where doctors are doing only what they're allowed to do in the hospital, because hospitals have credentialing policies in place. Physicians operating in an office environment, however, may bypass such policies because they answer only to themselves.

These are some reasons behind creating the Diamond Doctor Society, an elitely credentialed society that will ensure members have board certifications, are academically affiliated, maintain continuing education and have exacting credentials in their practice areas. Member physicians will be branded to the public as being "ultra-legitimate," and will be marketed in the media and on www.diamonddoctorsociety.com as meeting credential requirements so far above the norm that they can't be questioned.

In addition, member physicians also will receive benefits from the many vendor companies that are supporting the society.

Outpatient surgery, especially office-based, is evolving. As it does, the concept of credentialing physicians and facilities also evolves rapidly.

The Diamond Doctor Society will give patients added protection, ensuring the doctors they've chosen are among the best credentialed in their specialties thanks to an extra level of legitimacy in the physician-selection process. The Diamond Doctor Society will help assure priority No. 1 - protecting the patient - stays that way.