Recommendations
2128
| ID | Report Number | Report Title | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-03526-230 | Alleged Care Delays and Inadequate Instrument Precleaning at the New Mexico VA Health Care System, Albuquerque | Hotline Healthcare Inspection | ||
1 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director ensures that patients denied a Veterans Choice Program referral are informed of their rights to appeal, that facility policy is consistent with Veterans Health Administration requirements, and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
2 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director verifies that the Ophthalmology and Optometry Departments’ consult management and scheduling practices are consistent with Veterans Health Administration patient indicated date timeframe requirements, incorporates patient preference, and includes receiving provider review of consults, and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
3 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director makes certain the Ophthalmology and Optometry Departments’ clinical and administrative staff receive training regarding Veterans Health Administration requirements of consult management and scheduling practices.
Closure Date:
4 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director reviews the Ophthalmology Department’s eye cataract intake surgery scheduling practice and ensures that overall timeliness is consistent with Veterans Health Administration directives, and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
5 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director conducts a timeliness review of the authorization process for non-VA Care routine eye appointments, including diabetic eye examinations, and implement action plans if the process fails to adhere to Veterans Health Administration directives.
Closure Date:
6 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director ensures the Gastroenterology Department’s consult management practices are consistent with Veterans Health Administration scheduling requirements for patient indicated dates, and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
7 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director establishes a routine review of Gastroenterology Department consult performance measures and a method to monitor identified deficiencies consistent with Veterans Health Administration requirements.
Closure Date:
8 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director evaluates whether test results within the past 12 months, ordered by the Gastroenterology Department were communicated to patients according to Veterans Healthcare Administration and facility policy, and takes action as necessary based on the results of the evaluation.
Closure Date:
9 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director reviews facility policy for the ordering and reporting of test results to be in alignment with Veterans Health Administration directives and completes revisions, if needed.
Closure Date:
10 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director ensures that Gastroenterology Department-ordered test results are communicated timely in accordance with Veterans Health Administration and facility policy and the timeliness is monitored through the ongoing peer review process as required by facility policy.
Closure Date:
11 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director ensures that the Gastroenterology Department Service Chief develop a process for delegating responsibility and accountability for test results and follow-up when multiple providers are involved, and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
12 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director ensures documented endoscope precleaning training for Gastroenterology Fellows, and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
13 The New Mexico VA Health Care System Director verifies that documentation of endoscope precleaning competencies for Gastroenterology Fellows is consistent with Veterans Health Administration requirements.
Closure Date:
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| 19-07350-192 | Boston, Massachusetts, VA Regional Office Supervisor Incorrectly Processed Work Items | Review | ||
1 The director of the Boston VA Regional Office reviews and corrects all work items that were cancelled or cleared by the supervisor that are likely to result in adjustments to recipients’ benefit payments.
Closure Date:
2 The director of the Boston VA Regional Office confers with regional counsel to determine the appropriate administrative action to take, if any, against the supervisor.
Closure Date:
3 The director of the Boston VA Regional Office implements a plan to ensure internal controls for assessing the quality of claims processed by supervisors.
Closure Date:
Total Monetary Impact of All Recommendations
Open: $0
Closed: $84,400
Total: $84,400
| ||||
| 18-00777-224 | Quality of Care and Patient Safety Concerns on the Acute Behavioral Health Unit at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Hotline Healthcare Inspection | ||
1 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director ensures that providers understand the importance of monitoring for cardiac changes, drug-drug interactions, and signs of oversedation when initiating patients on methadone.
Closure Date:
2 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director monitors that providers and clinical staff effectively and directly communicate with one another when providing complex patient care.
Closure Date:
3 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director confirms that the issue brief submitted on the identified patient contains accurate information.
Closure Date:
4 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director reviews the root cause analysis related to the identified patient to determine if the team composition compromised the integrity of the root cause analysis and take appropriate action if necessary.
Closure Date:
5 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director ensures that root cause analysis team compositions include appropriate staff and monitor compliance.
Closure Date:
6 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director considers Peer Review for Quality Management for the additional two providers identified in this report.
Closure Date:
7 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director ensures that Unit 7E staff are knowledgeable of the observation policy, and nursing leaders are monitoring staff compliance when assigned rounding responsibilities.
Closure Date:
8 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director completes actions initiated or taken to resolve identified deficiencies that contributed to the events discussed in this report, and monitors for compliance.
Closure Date:
9 The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center Director certifies that providers receive ongoing education on the required elements of a signed written consent prior to the initiation of methadone and ensures that providers comply with VA policy and monitors for compliance.
Closure Date:
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| 18-01836-185 | Sole-Source Service Contracting at Regional Procurement Office West Needs Improvement | Review | ||
1 The OIG recommended the Executive Director, VHA Procurement, ensure awareness of approval procedures and the requirement to prepare a written justification and approval document for sole-source contracts,
Closure Date:
2 The OIG recommended the Executive Director, VHA Procurement, establish procedures to help ensure all justification and approval documents are prepared and approved by the appropriate authority.
Closure Date:
3 The OIG recommended the Executive Director, VHA Procurement, review the actions of contracting personnel involved in the cited contracts and determine whether administrative actions are warranted.
Closure Date:
Total Monetary Impact of All Recommendations
Open: $0
Closed: $6,034,026
Total: $6,034,026
| ||||
| 18-01836-184 | Sole-Source Service Contracting at Regional Procurement Office East Needs Improvement | Review | ||
1 The OIG recommended that the executive director, VHA Procurement ensure awareness of approval procedures and the requirement to prepare a writtenjustification and approval document for sole-source contracts.
Closure Date:
2 The OIG recommended that the executive director, VHA Procurement establish procedures to help ensure all justification and approval documents areprepared and approved by the appropriate authority.
Closure Date:
3 The OIG recommended that the executive director, VHA Procurement review the actions of contracting personnel involved in the cited contracts anddetermine whether administrative actions are warranted.
Closure Date:
4 The OIG recommended that the executive director, VHA Procurement establish formal coordination with the requiring activity to ensure adequate time isallotted for soliciting and awarding recurring services competitively.
Closure Date:
Total Monetary Impact of All Recommendations
Open: $0
Closed: $14,245,166
Total: $14,245,166
| ||||
| 18-05258-193 | Security and Access Controls for the Beneficiary Fiduciary Field System Need Improvement | Audit | ||
1 The assistant secretary for information and technology, in conjunction with the under secretary for benefits, reevaluate the risk determination for the Beneficiary Fiduciary Field System and determine if the system should be set to a security categorization level.
Closure Date:
2 The assistant secretary for information and technology, in conjunction with the under secretary for benefits, perform a risk assessment of access levels to beneficiary and fiduciary records, based upon the least privilege principle, and regularly review access to ensure that principle is enforced.
Closure Date:
3 The assistant secretary for information and technology ensures audit logs within the Beneficiary Fiduciary Field System allow for management tracking of end-user access in order to reduce unauthorized browsing and the risk of data theft due to malicious activity.
Closure Date:
4 The under secretary for benefits ensures field examiners submit reports with a cursory lock engaged to protect their data integrity and to prevent separation of duties issues.
Closure Date:
| ||||
| 18-01836-183 | Problems Were Identified on One Regional Procurement Office Central Ambulance Service Contract | Review | ||
1 The OIG recommended that the executive director, VHA Procurement ensure awareness of approval procedures for justification and approval documents for sole source contracts.
Closure Date:
2 The OIG recommended that the executive director, VHA Procurement establish formal coordination with the requiring activity to ensure adequate time is allotted for soliciting and awarding recurring services competitively.
Closure Date:
Total Monetary Impact of All Recommendations
Open: $0
Closed: $2,227,493
Total: $2,227,493
| ||||
| 17-05251-194 | National Review of Hospice and Palliative Care at the Veterans Health Administration | Hotline Healthcare Inspection | ||
1 The Under Secretary for Health ensures the development and implementation of a consistent and standardized approach for hospice and palliative care documentation, consult management, and coding.
Closure Date:
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| 18-05663-189 | Accuracy of Claims Decisions Involving Conditions of the Spine | Review | ||
1 Implement a plan to conduct a focused analysis of claims processor compliance with the requirements set forth by recent court decisions regarding examiner opinions and formulate a plan to review and take corrective action on affected claims if deemed necessary based on the results of that review.
Closure Date:
2 Develop a plan to update the rating schedule to establish more objective criteria for each level of evaluation for peripheral nerves.
Closure Date:
3 Review all sections of the procedures manual related to peripheral nerve disability evaluations and develop a plan to make updates and clarifications where applicable.
Closure Date:
4 Review the disability benefits questionnaire forms for conditions of the spine and determine whether updates are needed to help ensure more accurate and consistent claims decisions.
Closure Date:
5 Update the Evaluation Builder tool to help users provide more accurate, comprehensive, and consistent information for claims decisions involving the spine and peripheral nerves.
Closure Date:
Total Monetary Impact of All Recommendations
Open: $0
Closed: $64,800,000
Total: $64,800,000
| ||||
| 17-03399-200 | Facility Leaders’ Oversight and Quality Management Processes at the Gulf Coast VA Health Care System in Biloxi, Mississippi | Hotline Healthcare Inspection | ||
1 The Veterans Integrated Service Network 16 Director oversees implementation of recommendations directed to the Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director.
Closure Date:
2 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that providers with previous licensure issues or malpractice cases meeting the Veterans Health Administration indicated threshold for Veterans Integrated Service Network Chief Medical Officer review, are approved by the Veterans Integrated Service Network Chief Medical Officer prior to appointment of the provider to the medical staff as required by Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
3 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that Focused and Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluations are completed in accordance with Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
4 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that actions are taken to ensure processes are followed to review and report providers, when indicated, to the National Practitioner Data Bank and state licensing boards in the timeframe required by Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
5 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director reviews the circumstances surrounding the failure to report the surgeon to all licensing boards in states where the surgeon held active licenses in December 2017 and takes action, if necessary.
Closure Date:
6 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that the Executive Committee of the Medical Staff’s meeting minutes provide sufficient detail to allow tracking of medical management decisions and problem solving and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
7 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director determines the scope of previously administratively closed incomplete notes in patient electronic health records that have been administratively closed to ensure compliance with Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
8 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director tracks and monitors the process used to administratively close incomplete electronic health record notes by providers who no longer work at the Gulf Coast VA Health Care System.
Closure Date:
9 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures and monitors that protected information contained in the Facility Surgical Workgroup minutes is maintained on a secure intranet site in alignment with Veterans Health Administration policy.
Closure Date:
10 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director confirms that patients’ care whose death occurred within 30 days of a surgical procedure are reviewed and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
11 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that required staff maintain basic life support and advanced cardiac life support certification as required by Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
12 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director makes sure that required Gulf Coast Health Care System services submit monthly basic life support and advanced cardiac life support compliance reports to the Critical Care Committee.
Closure Date:
13 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director verifies that monthly basic life support and advanced cardiac life support compliance reports are provided to the Executive Committee of the Medical Staff as required by Gulf Coast VA Health Care System policy and monitors for compliance.
Closure Date:
14 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director makes sure that Patient Safety Committee meeting minutes reflect a discussion of patient safety activities as required by Gulf Coast VA Health Care System policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
15 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director makes certain that past and future adverse events are reported to the patient safety manager as defined in Gulf Coast Health Care System policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
16 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that at least one proactive risk assessment is completed every 18 months for The Joint Commission accredited programs as required by Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
17 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director makes certain that an effective process is in place to identify and review cases where an institutional disclosure may be indicated and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
18 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director reviews the eight identified events that met criteria for consideration of an institutional disclosure as required by Veterans Health Administration policy and takes action as warranted.
Closure Date:
19 The Gulf Coast VA Health Care System Director ensures that Administrative Investigation Boards are completed within the 45-calendar day timeframe required by Veterans Health Administration policy and monitors compliance.
Closure Date:
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15333