Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report titled "Indian Health Service: Opportunities Exist to Improve Clinician Screening Adherence and Oversight." The Indian Health Service (IHS) reviews and verifies professional qualifications of clinicians through a process known as credentialing and privileging. GAO found that existing IHS oversight methods did not ensure adherence to all of IHS's credentialing and privileging requirements. The report found that IHS "generally met some of the requirements reviewed," but that IHS did not meet six of their requirements in 10% or more of the files GAO reviewed. However, please note that this report only analyzed practices and experiences at federally-operated IHS facilities in only nine of the twelve IHS areas.
According to the report, the lack of adherence is due to IHS not having a single, comprehensive source for credentialing and privileging requirements. Existing IHS oversight is largely concentrated at the local level and is spread across multiple departments and documents, which makes it difficult for IHS headquarters to exercise oversight and for officials to follow all relevant requirements. GAO states in the report that until IHS ensures that clinicians are properly screens, "IHS risks hiring or retaining clinicians with performance, health, or other issues, potentially affecting the quality of care provided to patients and putting them at risk."
In addition, the report found that the quality of care at IHS is potentially being negatively affected by the amount of time clinicians are spending on administrative tasks such as entering records electronically. GAO found that clinicians who spend excessive time on administrative tasks are less satisfied with their careers, which may negatively affect the care they are providing to Tribal communities.
The full report from GAO can be viewed here. USET SPF will continue to monitor this issue and will provide updates when relevant.
For more information, please contact Ashton Martin, USET SPF Health Policy Analyst, at amartin@usetinc.org.
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