My literature provides a comprehensive overview of the problem at hand and the existing literature on the topic, grouped generally into three main areas:

$1.)$ Background$/$overview of the problem

First, I provide an overview of common inefficiencies in the credentialing process that research has demonstrated impact other organizations. This section provides background for my project and the issues faced by Buckeye Credentialing. First, I highlight how COVID$-19$ has very negatively impacted the credentialing and licensing areas of the U$.$S$.$ healthcare system, which was already very fragile $($Bell & Katz, $2021).$ Specifically, given the rapid, widespread hiring of physicians that resulted from increased demand in $2020,$ Bell and Katz $(2021)$ describe a credentialing system that was plagued with so many inefficiencies that it could hardly meet the needs of the healthcare system. The most notable inefficiency, which was made much worse by the pandemic, is an extremely slow turnaround time for applications, which can cause extreme delays to patient care and provider payment $($Nguyen et al$.,2022).$ Unfortunately, this area of healthcare has been very under$-$researched, which is partially why these problems have been so difficult to overcome.

$2.)$ Existing research

Similarly, my literature review seeks to provide an overview of existing literature and research on this topic and how it contributes to the problem. In many cases, this takes the form of a lack of enough research. For example: in a literature review of $19$ studies, Sorrentino $(2019)$ found that six studies reported delays in nearly $61\%$ of their applications, yet a clear solution is not explored or offered. Other similar research, such as by Nguyen and colleagues $(2019)$ found many inefficiencies in the credentialing process when examining community pharmacies during the pandemic, but still no solution is offered. As such, many organizations, such as Buckeye Credentialing, have little guidance to go off of while navigating this problem.

$3.)$ Impact of the problem

Lastly, I seek to establish the importance of my research through the literature review by examining the extent of the impact this problem has on healthcare organizations. The impacts mainly come in the form of delays to patient care and delays to provider payment, which is both costly and detrimental to patient outcomes $($Chapman et al$.,2020).$ In this section, I position my study within the scope of the larger picture $--$ which, unfortunately, is not difficult to do given how greatly my organization has been impacted by this issue.