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Gov’t audit insider: Get your direct care hours in order

Healthcare Auditing Weekly, May 4, 2004

Dublinair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Georgia mixed up its numbers on direct care hours and received words of warning from an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit, the OIG reported April 27.

The facility had a shining audit on staffing requirements with the exception of one dull spot: the OIG calculated a lower number of average direct care hours per resident than the facility reported to its state nursing home comparison Web site, the OIG says.

To confirm that Dublinair did in fact meet its staffing requirements, the OIG did the following:

• Reviewed relevant laws and regulations
• Gathered data on Dublinair from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) online reporting system
• Obtained staffing schedules and payroll records to confirm direct care hours per resident per day, in addition to the employee-to-resident ratio for several two week periods
• Verified licensure and certification of all direct care employees
  Inquired as to the standing of all direct care employees through Georgia's online license and certification system
• Reviewed the two most recent surveys of the facility
• Worked with the facility's administrator to understand Dublinair's policies and procedures for recruiting and retaining staff

Dublinair agreed to institute new controls to further prevent discrepancies between the data reflected in their records and that posted on the state's Web site. The OIG recommended that the facility report direct care staffing hours from its payroll records only.

Click here to view the audit of Dublinair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center's staffing requirements.

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