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As medical professionals and volunteers fight on the frontlines of COVID-19, for many, their own mental health has been put on the backburner. In an effort to aid the medical response, Merit launched ReadyNow to provide digital licensing at no cost to state organizations, medical professionals, or anyone needing to verify credentials during the pandemic. Additionally, we’ve recently announced Merit Opportunities–a new feature in the Merit app that allows organizations to share opportunities such as networking events, promotional discounts, training to earn additional credentials, and so much more. Today we are excited to share that we have partnered with Sibly to provide one of our first offered opportunities to first responders that are managing their medical credentials in Merit!

The bothersome, manual administrative labor required from medical organizations and their staff is something Merit has strived to ease during the COVID-19 pandemic. The launch of Merit ReadyNow eliminates the paperwork for interstate license reciprocity and license verification, but we also wanted something that would help organizations search for and access the medical professionals that are needed immediately. With these concerns in mind, Merit has launched Merit Lookup.

In a perfect world, states, hospitals, and volunteer organizations would be able to validate and issue merits without all of the sign-in sheets, time spent confirming participant credentials, and countless hours adding up total participant time. With the Merit Check-in app, all this can be done in an instant.

The Current Process Takes Too Long 

It currently takes days or weeks for a hospital’s credentialing office to perform the necessary background checks to allow medical professionals to begin work outside of their jurisdiction. For situations like what we’re facing today with COVID-19, that is time we cannot afford to lose.

The usual process of interstate licensing is known to be a long, manual, and paperwork-heavy process, but COVID-19 is striking an urgency that many have not felt before. During a time when every second counts, faster solutions are needed to allow medical professionals to get to work as soon as possible. Merit ReadyNow rises to the challenge of providing a quick solution, enabling any licensed medical professional in the U.S. to volunteer or work from any medical facility in the country for the duration of the crisis.

With recent city-wide shutdowns, travel restrictions, and limited testing availability throughout the country, many Americans are worried that healthcare professionals will soon be overwhelmed with the number of patients needing care. And even more so—worried about the patients unable to receive it. In response to these concerns, Merit recently announced the launch of Merit ReadyNow which makes digital interstate license reciprocity work for the entire country.