An audit of 36 nursing homes in New York revealed the need for state inspectors to be more thorough in their inspection of the medical equipment used in the facilities. The audit revealed things like a rusty wheelchair and a dust-covered suction machine. Failure to maintain equipment and to ensure that it is functioning and clean constitutes a substandard quality of care and may pose a danger to residents using the equipment. This might be considered fraud and abuse and result in the submission of false claims.
Compliance Perspective – Poor Maintenance:
The Compliance Officer, the Administrator, DON and the Maintenance Manager will review the facilityās policies and procedures regarding the maintenance, testing, documentation and regular cleaning of all medical equipment. Maintenance and nursing staff will be educated on the protocols for regular maintenance, testing, documentation and cleaning of all medical equipment. The Compliance Officer will request the Maintenance Manager and the DON to develop and implement an audit that will be conducted on a regular basis to inspect all medical equipment in the facility, whether currently in use or in storage, to test that it is functioning properly, is receiving regular maintenance, has appropriate documentation regarding such maintenance and testing and that it is clean and dust-free. Any findings will be summarized and reported to the QAPI Committee for its review and recommendations to the Compliance and Ethics Committee.
An audit just released by the New York State Comptroller found that the State Health Department needs to improve and increase its efforts to ensure that nursing homes are maintaining and testing their medical equipment.
Two examples cited in the report to illustrate the auditorsā findings of poorly maintained medical equipment were a rusty wheelchair and a dust-covered suction machine used to remove airway fluid. They were two of the numerous deficiencies discovered in inspections at 36 nursing homes throughout the State of New York.
Although the health department completes in a timely manner and reports any deficient practices to the public, the audit determined th
at the inspectors are not examining the facilityās medical equipment carefully enough.
The State Comptroller made this statement about the audit, āNew York State is doing the bare minimum when it comes to inspecting life-saving equipment used in nursing homes.ā
The audit reported evidence that indicated the health department inspectors might not have been examining all the heart monitors, dialysis and electrocardiogram machines. Instead, the inspectors would only looked at a sampling of the medical equipment in the nursing homes.
The audit also reported that thirty-five of the nursing homes visited by the auditors were missing maintenance and service records on 177 pieces of medical equipment. The nursing homes visited by the auditors were not identified.
