Audit: Many health care facilities don’t receive timely inspections

Friday, Jan. 28, 2000 | 12:05 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state agency that oversees the licensing and regulation of medical facilities has failed to do timely inspections on a number of health-care centers and to follow up on consumer complaints, a legislative audit says.

Auditors said untimely inspections by the state Bureau of Licensure and Certification "increase the likelihood that violations of laws and regulations will go undetected."

"These laws and regulations were established to protect those who receive care in medical and health facilities, ambulances and from medical laboratories," said the audit, which was released Wednesday. "Noncompliance could result in increased health care risks for patients in these facilities."

This bureau is responsible for monitoring about 630 medical and health-care facilities and for licensing and certifying facilities for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement. It also licenses and certifies more than 550 medical laboratories and certifies that environmental laboratories meet the federal safe drinking water act. It also issues operating permits for about 230 ambulances.

And it's responsible for investigating complaints from the public, which in 1998 totaled about 1,100.

Taking a sample of 100 medical and health facilities, auditors said it found that 37 of them had not received an inspection within the past year.

Where federal regulations apply, the inspections should be conducted within one year. "However, the most current inspections for some medical facilities exceeded 2.5 years," the auditors reported.

For example, the most recent inspection for four ambulatory surgical centers ranged from 2.5 to six years. One independent center for emergency care had not been inspected since 1995.

"We found inspection intervals for seven health facilities exceeded five years," the audit said.

Most complaints from the public are filed against adult group care and skilled nursing facilities, the auditors said. They found that in 1998 that 46 percent of the complaints against group care homes were not investigated within the time limits. And 52 percent of the complaints against skilled nursing facilities didn't get any investigation within the prescribed time lines.

"Investigating complaints in a timely manner helps to ensure public health is protected," said the audit team of Stephany Gibbs, Eric Wormhoudt, Harry O'Nan and Stephen Wood.

They reported that 17 of the 49 adult group care homes sampled had gone more than one year since their last inspection. And in five cases the time between inspections ranged from four to six years.

A good part of the blame for these failures can be put on the data collection and reporting system. "We found the current management information systems do not produce or provide complete, accurate or reliable information.

"Poor quality management information increases the risk that complaint investigations and facility inspections are not always performed timely," the audit said.