www.va.govReport Summary
Audit of the Veterans Health Administration’s Domiciliary Safety, Security, and Privacy
Report Number 08-01030-05, 10/9/2008 | Full Report (PDF)
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) needs to implement additional national procedures and clarify national guidance to ensure that domiciliary safety, security, and privacy issues are sufficiently identified, reported, and corrected throughout the year. Our audit included site visits of five domiciliaries and disclosed three national issues which impact all 49 domiciliaries: (1) There is a need to establish national procedures for the inspections of veterans’ rooms, (2) Additional safety, security, and privacy procedures are needed for female veterans along with security initiatives for all veteran residents, and (3) Improvements are needed in annual safety, security, and privacy reporting as well as the follow-up process. Overall, VHA safety, security, and privacy at domiciliaries warrant attention and remediation. The audit report makes seven recommendations to the Under Secretary for Health to improve safety, security, and privacy at domiciliaries. The Under Secretary for Health concurred with the seven audit recommendations. He agreed to establish national procedures to conduct regular and random room inspections and additional national procedures for the special needs of female veterans. He also agreed to implement additional national procedures and planned actions to address safety, security, and privacy concerns for all veterans, including improved reporting and follow-up measures. The Under Secretary for Health reported that many of the additional national procedures are included in the draft VHA Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Programs (MHRRTP) Handbook. The draft Handbook is expected to be finalized during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. VHA’s target date for completing most actions is February 2009, and the target date for completing the last planned action is January 2011. The audit report makes one recommendation to the Assistant Secretary for Operations, Security, and Preparedness to strengthen controls to ensure physical security surveys are conducted at domiciliaries with controlled substances. The Assistant Secretary for Operations, Security, and Preparedness concurred with the recommendation. He agreed to establish additional controls, including regular consultations with unit Chiefs and facility officials responsible for narcotics inventories, and evaluations for compliance during routine inspections or other reviews. The target date for completing the planned actions is the 2nd quarter of FY 2009.