Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) in Washington, D.C., United States for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 "Review of Alleged Irregular Use of Purchase Cards by VHA’s Engineering Service at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, Georgia"
The Office of Inspector General conducted this review in response to allegations that Dublin VA Medical Center (VAMC) purchase cardholders split purchases and made duplicate payments to Ryland Contracting Incorporated and Sterilizer Technical Specialists. We substantiated the allegation that VAMC Dublin cardholders in Engineering Service made unauthorized commitments by splitting purchases and exceeding micro purchase limits. Of 130 sampled purchases made from October 2012 through March 2015, 23 were split purchases that avoided the $3,000 limit for supplies and 14 were purchases that exceeded the $2,500 limit for services. This was not prevented because approving officials did not adequately monitor cardholders to ensure compliance with VA policy. As a result, of 5,100 purchase card transactions totaling about $7.1 million, we estimated about 100 transactions totaling about $240,000 (3.4 percent) were unauthorized commitments and improper payments. We did not substantiate the allegation that cardholders made duplicate payments to Ryland Contracting Incorporated and Sterilizer Technical Specialists. However, we found cardholders inappropriately made 91 micro purchases for services received from these vendors without establishing contracts. This was not prevented because approving officials did not adequately review cardholder transactions to identify service purchases exceeding Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) $5,000 threshold for establishing contracts during a fiscal year. As a result, cardholders purchased and received services totaling about $218,000 that avoided Federal competition requirements. We recommended the Veterans Integrated Service Network 7 Director review transactions for unauthorized commitments, submit ratification requests, emphasize the importance of monitoring cardholders, provide training, and ensure approving officials do not exceed the limit of assigned cardholders. In addition, we recommended the Director ensure contracts are established in accordance with VHA policy and take appropriate administrative action for each cardholder who made unauthorized commitments.
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Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) in Washington, D.C., United States for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 "Healthca
re Inspection – Alleged Unreported Surgical Incidents and Deaths, VA Caribbean Healthcare System, San Juan, Puerto Rico"
OIG conducted a healthcare inspection in 2016 in response to complaints about the VA Caribbean Healthcare System, San Juan, Puerto Rico. An anonymous complainant alleged that surgical incidents and deaths were unreported because of a conflict of interest between a quality management employee and a senior leader. During interviews, we did not find evidence of a conflict of interest. We reviewed the validity of the allegation regarding the reporting of surgical incidents and deaths. We did not substantiate that surgical incidents or deaths were unreported. We compared information regarding surgical deaths extracted from the Corporate Data Warehouse with the facility morbidity and mortality committee minutes and found the data to be congruent with information in patients’ Electronic Health Records. We distributed a bilingual survey (English and Spanish) to 128 VA Caribbean Healthcare System Quality Management, operating room (OR), and Post-Operative Care Unit staff as well as surgeons. We asked the following survey questions: (1) “Do you have any concerns about the reporting of incidents in surgery?” and (2) “Are incidents in surgery being reported as required?” We had an 11 percent response rate to the survey; no employees reported concerns about incidents in surgery on the survey. For purposes of this review, we used the terms incident, adverse event, and occurrence interchangeably. Surgical Service staff completed a Critical Incident Tracking Notification report when incidents occurred, including deaths in the OR, incorrect surgery (wrong patient, wrong procedure, wrong side/site, wrong implant), retained surgical item, OR fire, and OR burn. This information was aggregated and included in the quarterly National Surgery Office report and reconciled with records from the National Patient Safety Office. We found the facility had an electronic system for reporting incidents. The facility Patient Safety Improvement Program described a “culture of safety,” which includes identification and reporting of incidents, review of incidents to determine underlying causes, and implementation of changes to reduce the likelihood of recurrence. The Patient Safety Officer provided us a copy of the training provided to all employees during facility orientation. We made no recommendations.
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Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General in Washington, D.C., United States for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 "
Review of Alleged Mismanagement of VHA's Patient Transportation Service Contract for the Jesse Brown VAMC in Chicago, IL
In March 2015, the Office of Inspector General received an allegation of mismanagement of the patient transportation service contract for the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL, which resulted in a waste of funds. We substantiated the allegation of contract mismanagement. Specifically, the Great Lakes Acquisition Center (GLAC) contracting officer (CO) did not adequately validate performance requirements to determine the required quantity of transportation trips. The CO did not adequately determine price reasonableness or fully fund the contract prior to obligating the Government. Finally, the CO did not document required contract information in VA’s Electronic Contract Management System (eCMS). This occurred because the GLAC CO did not ensure required reviews were performed for the awarded contract and for four modifications that either funded or extended the contract, increasing its value from about $885,000 to more than $6 million. Also, VA did not solicit competition to ensure fair and reasonable pricing. As a result, VA lacks assurance that the amount paid was the best value to the Government. In addition, VA potentially violated the Antideficiency Act (ADA) if funds were not available at the time VA incurred obligations for the services performed. We recommended that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) ensure compliance with policies to perform required oversight reviews and ensure eCMS includes complete contract information. We also recommended that VA compete future patient transportation service contracts. Lastly, we recommended that VHA determine if an ADA violation occurred. The Acting Under Secretary for Health concurred with our report and recommendations, and provided a plan for corrective action. We considered the plan acceptable and will follow up on its implementation.
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U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., United States for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 
"Veterans Affairs YouTube Update"
US Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, North West Washington, D.C. 20420, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., United States for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 "
Veterans Affairs YouTube Update"
US Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, North West Washington, D.C. 20420, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
Military Health System in Washington, D.C., United States for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 "
Shedding light on vitamin D"
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| Military Health System The Pentagon Washington, D.C' 20301, United States |
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