Weaknesses in policies and oversight covering medical supplies and equipment pose risks to veteran safety, GAO has said.
It said VA tracking and reprocessing requirements that it reviewed are inadequate to help ensure the safety of veterans who receive care VA medical centers.
GAO said that is because, for example, VA does not require VAMCs to enter information about certain expendable medical supplies and reusable medical equipment – “RME” – in their facilities into VA’s inventory management systems, raising the risk that VAMCs may have incomplete inventories of these items which could cause problems in some situations, such as a recall.
Further, while medical centers are required to develop device-specific training for staff on how to correctly reprocess RME, the department has not specified the types of RME for which this training is required, according to GAO-11-391.
It also said the VA has plans to develop training for certain RME, but that the department lacks a timeline for developing this training.
The department agreed with several of GAO’s recommendations. For example it agreed to enter information about all expendable medical supplies and RME into appropriate inventory management systems, as well as to develop and implement an approach for providing standardized training for reprocessing RME to VAMCs.