Federal Reports

In 2007, the Postal Service introduced the Continuous Improvement (CI) Program as a management strategy to produce both immediate and sustainable, continuous process improvements. CI is an ongoing effort to improve Postal Service products, services, or processes. The Postal Service uses the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) problem-solving process as part of the CI Program. The objective of our audit was to determine whether contractual support services for the CI Program were effectively supporting the program’s goals.

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The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a focused evaluation of the quality of care delivered in the inpatient and outpatient settings of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (Facility). The review covered key clinical and administrative processes associated with promoting quality care—Leadership and Organizational Risks; Quality, Safety, and Value; Credentialing and Privileging; Environment of Care; Medication Management: Controlled Substances (CS) Inspection Program; Mental Health Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Care; Long-Term Care: Geriatric Evaluations; Women’s Health: Mammography Results and Follow-Up; and High-Risk Processes: Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections. The Facility had generally stable executive leadership and active engagement with employees as evidenced by satisfaction scores. However, opportunities exist to improve patient experiences. Facility leaders appear to support patient safety, quality care, and other positive outcomes. The OIG reviewed accreditation organization findings, sentinel events, disclosures, Patient Safety Indicator data, and Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL) results and did not identify any substantial organizational risk factors. The leadership team was knowledgeable about selected SAIL metrics but should continue to take actions to improve performance of Quality of Care and Efficiency metrics likely contributing to the current “2-Star” rating. The OIG noted findings in five of the eight areas of clinical operations reviewed and issued nine recommendations that are attributable to the Director, Chief of Staff, and Associate Director. The identified areas with deficiencies are: (1) Quality, Safety, and Value • Physician Utilization Management Advisors’ documentation of decisions (2) Environment of Care • Panic alarm testing at the representative community based outpatient clinic and locked mental health unit (3) Medication Management: CS Inspection Program • Monthly reports to the Director • CS reconciliation • CS order verification • Emergency drug cache inspections (4) Mental Health Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Care • Suicide risk assessments (5) Long-term Care: Geriatric Evaluations • Program oversight