When Janet Darling helped found the Consortium for Universal Healthcare Credentialing (C4UHC), she did it for one reason — to clean up what she calls “the mess” that is vendor credentialing in healthcare.
For more than 17 years, Janet has watched the costs and complexity of vendor credentialing spiral. What once cost the industry less than a million dollars a year has now ballooned into a multi-million-dollar annual burden — with much of that cost driven by redundancy, inconsistency, and inefficiency.
“Everyone agrees we need vendor credentialing,” Janet says. “But no one agrees on how to do it the same way. The lack of standardization doesn’t just waste time — it puts unnecessary strain on both suppliers and providers. We can do better.”
And she’s right. Two of the most frustrating areas of variation are around drug screening and background checks. Each health system seems to have its own rules — different panels for drug tests, different documentation criteria for what’s acceptable, and different frequencies for when background checks and drug screenings need to be redone. The result? Identity theft risk to reps required to provide their sensitive information, endless repetition, unnecessary costs, and no added value to patient safety.
That conviction — that the industry can and must do better — led Janet, along with other leaders, to help launch C4UHC in 2016. The vision was clear: create a single, standardized approach to supplier credentialing in healthcare that reduces variation, ensures compliance, and ultimately protects and lowers costs to patients.
For Janet, one of the most powerful levers for achieving that vision is the ANSI Standard for supplier credentialing in healthcare. She’s quick to point out that the benefits extend far beyond administrative efficiency.
“At the heart of it all, standards improve patient care,” Janet explains. “When we align on consistent expectations, we reduce risk and strengthen safety across the system. Standards also help teams communicate and coordinate better — everyone is speaking the same language, which leads to smoother processes and more effective care.”
Beyond that, standards help organizations run better. They eliminate unnecessary variation, cut down on wasted effort, and allow resources to be redirected where they belong — toward patients and innovation. And by creating a clear, reliable framework, the ANSI Standard actually makes it easier to adopt new technologies and encourage continuous improvement.
That’s the vision Janet continues to champion — a future where vendor credentialing isn’t a burden, but a bridge to better care for everyone involved.
Still, progress hasn’t been easy. Despite years of advocacy and the publication of an ANSI-recognized national standard, adoption has been slow. Hospitals and suppliers are still navigating multiple credentialing systems, each with its own set of requirements determined by each hospital. For someone as pragmatic and patient-focused as Janet, that slow rate of change is hard to accept.
“It’s frustrating,” she admits. “We’ve built the roadmap. We’ve proven the benefits. But change in healthcare — especially at the intersection of compliance, technology, and operations — takes time. And time is the one thing we never seem to have enough of.”
Yet, Janet remains undeterred. She continues to push for alignment across the ecosystem — from providers and suppliers to credentialing organizations — believing that standardization is not just possible, but inevitable.
Because in her mind, she is that patient whose safety depends on getting this process right, which is why cleaning up the mess isn’t optional. It’s essential.
And for those who know Janet, that persistence is exactly what keeps the movement going.
Join the Movement
This year marks an important new chapter in that journey — the launch of a new ANSI Standard development effort for the credentialing of non-employees of a health system.
If you share Janet’s passion for simplifying, standardizing, and strengthening healthcare credentialing, now is the time to get involved.
Join the working group, share your expertise, and help shape the framework that will guide the next decade of compliance and patient safety.
Learn more and participate in the ANSI Standard development process.
C4UHC Founder Janet M. Darling: Cleaning Up the Credentialing Chaos
When Janet Darling helped found the Consortium for Universal Healthcare Credentialing (C4UHC), she did it for one reason — to clean up what she calls “the mess” that is vendor credentialing in healthcare.
For more than 17 years, Janet has watched the costs and complexity of vendor credentialing spiral. What once cost the industry less than a million dollars a year has now ballooned into a multi-million-dollar annual burden — with much of that cost driven by redundancy, inconsistency, and inefficiency.
And she’s right. Two of the most frustrating areas of variation are around drug screening and background checks. Each health system seems to have its own rules — different panels for drug tests, different documentation criteria for what’s acceptable, and different frequencies for when background checks and drug screenings need to be redone. The result? Identity theft risk to reps required to provide their sensitive information, endless repetition, unnecessary costs, and no added value to patient safety.
That conviction — that the industry can and must do better — led Janet, along with other leaders, to help launch C4UHC in 2016. The vision was clear: create a single, standardized approach to supplier credentialing in healthcare that reduces variation, ensures compliance, and ultimately protects and lowers costs to patients.
For Janet, one of the most powerful levers for achieving that vision is the ANSI Standard for supplier credentialing in healthcare. She’s quick to point out that the benefits extend far beyond administrative efficiency.
Beyond that, standards help organizations run better. They eliminate unnecessary variation, cut down on wasted effort, and allow resources to be redirected where they belong — toward patients and innovation. And by creating a clear, reliable framework, the ANSI Standard actually makes it easier to adopt new technologies and encourage continuous improvement.
That’s the vision Janet continues to champion — a future where vendor credentialing isn’t a burden, but a bridge to better care for everyone involved.
Still, progress hasn’t been easy. Despite years of advocacy and the publication of an ANSI-recognized national standard, adoption has been slow. Hospitals and suppliers are still navigating multiple credentialing systems, each with its own set of requirements determined by each hospital. For someone as pragmatic and patient-focused as Janet, that slow rate of change is hard to accept.
Yet, Janet remains undeterred. She continues to push for alignment across the ecosystem — from providers and suppliers to credentialing organizations — believing that standardization is not just possible, but inevitable.
Because in her mind, she is that patient whose safety depends on getting this process right, which is why cleaning up the mess isn’t optional. It’s essential.
And for those who know Janet, that persistence is exactly what keeps the movement going.
Join the Movement
This year marks an important new chapter in that journey — the launch of a new ANSI Standard development effort for the credentialing of non-employees of a health system.
If you share Janet’s passion for simplifying, standardizing, and strengthening healthcare credentialing, now is the time to get involved.
Join the working group, share your expertise, and help shape the framework that will guide the next decade of compliance and patient safety.
Learn more and participate in the ANSI Standard development process.