Transient Healthcare Workforce
Industry
Healthcare
Use Case
Solving the Roaming Doctor Problem
Problem Description
Healthcare organizations face significant challenges managing the identities and credentials of medical professionals who work across multiple facilities, health systems, or as contractors. The current process requires each organization to independently verify licenses, certifications, background checks, and employment history—a process that can take weeks per facility. This "roaming doctor problem" creates operational inefficiencies, delays critical staffing needs, increases administrative costs, and introduces security vulnerabilities through inconsistent identity verification practices. Temporary staff agencies and locum tenens providers compound these issues by requiring redundant credentialing across their network of healthcare partners.
Solution Using Verifiable Credentials
Verifiable credentials create a portable, cryptographically secure digital identity system where medical professionals hold tamper-proof credentials issued by trusted authorities (current and previous employers, medical boards, other institutions). These credentials contain verified information about licenses, certifications, training, work history, and background checks. When a doctor needs access to a new facility, they present their verifiable credentials, which can be instantly verified without contacting issuing organizations. Healthcare facilities can establish trust networks, accepting credentials from approved issuers, while maintaining granular control over access permissions and role assignments.
Monetary and Operational Outcomes
* Cost Reduction
· Eliminates 60-80% of credentialing administrative work
· Reduces IT helpdesk calls by up to 80%, with associated cost savings
· Allows for retirement of insecure, user-unfriendly, legacy authentication systems like SMS-based One-Time Passcodes, saving thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year
* Time Savings
Reduces credentialing time from weeks to hours, enabling rapid deployment of critical medical staff
* Risk Mitigation
Cryptographic verification eliminates credential fraud and reduces liability exposure from inadequate vetting, identity theft, and deep fakes.
* Operational Efficiency
Enables seamless staff mobility during emergencies, seasonal demands, or specialist rotations.