Healthcare Inspection - Follow-Up Evaluation of Dental Instrument Reprocessing Deficiencies St. Louis VA Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Office of Healthcare Inspections conducted a review to follow-up on our report, Reprocessing of Dental Instruments, John Cochran Division of the St. Louis VA Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri. The purpose was to determine whether the adverse conditions identified have been resolved and whether OIG’s recommendations were implemented. In the past 18 months, facility managers have taken corrective actions and some conditions identified in the 2011 OIG report have been resolved. However, recommendations 1 and 2 from our 2011 report will remain open until all action plans outlined by the facility are effectively implemented. These recommendations include: (1) monitoring for compliance of all appropriate elements of reusable medical equipment reprocessing, standard operating procedures (SOPs), staff training, and staff competencies; and (2) monitoring by the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) Supply, Processing, and Distribution (SPD) Management Board to ensure that SOPs are in place and staff training and competencies are current. Recommendation 3 related to administrative actions was addressed and resolved. We made an additional recommendation that the VISN Director require comprehensive baseline environment of care inspections of all SPD areas, and that identified deficiencies are promptly corrected and monitored for ongoing compliance. The VISN and facility Directors concurred with our recommendations and provided an acceptable action plan. We will follow up on the planned actions until they are completed.