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B-204289 1 (1981-09-15)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabkem0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON D.C. 20548 B-204289 September 15, 1981 The Honorable G. V. Montgomery Chairman, Committee on Veterans' Affairs House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: Your July 28, 1981, letter, asked for our views on H.R. 3971 which would amend title 38, United States Code by directing the Comptroller General to assign one employee of the General Accounting Office (GAO) to each Veterans Admini- stration (VA) facility providing hospital care. The employee would function as an ombudsman, investigating and reporting on patients' complaints of inadequate health care or treatment. You also asked for an estimated cost of this proposal. As you know, many organizations, both within and outside the VA, monitor and report quality of health care issues involving VA medical centers. in addition to GAO, these include --VA's Office of Inspector General, the Office of Medical Inspector, and the Health Services Review Organization; --veterans' service organizations; and --about 40 professional and regulatory agencies, such as the Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation. These organizations generally provide (1) means for identifying health care problems, (2) ways to resolve the problems, and (3) reporting either the problems or an assess- ment of the problems to the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs and to the Congress. For example, over the 2-year period ending March 31, 1981, the Inspector General had received 160 allegations regarding patient care of which 71 were determined to be well founded. There were 53 Systematic External Review Program surveys completed in fiscal year 1980 and numerous Systematic internal Review surveys conducted by the medical centers. In addition, VA conducts an annual patient satis- faction survey. Participating in the 1980 fiscal year HRl-BILL-16

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