Healthcare Inspection – Community Living Center Patient Care, Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System, Biloxi, Mississippi

OIG conducted an inspection in response to allegations of inadequate Community Living Center (CLC) physician staffing, improper supervision of surgical residents, refusal of nursing staff to provide care to CLC patients, a lack of action by the Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System, Biloxi, MS (system) leaders in response to quality of care concerns, and poor quality of care provided in the system’s Emergency Department. We substantiated that physician staffing in the CLC, which is part of the Extended Care Service, is inadequate. We found that the CLC currently only has one physician, who is also the chief of the service. The Extended Care Service has four physician vacancies and no ongoing active recruitment for these vacancies. We did not substantiate that surgical residents were not properly supervised, that nursing staff refused to provide care to CLC patients, that the system did not respond appropriately when quality of care concerns were raised, or that CLC patients received poor quality of care when transferred to the Emergency Department. We recommended that the System Director actively recruit and fill approved physician vacancies within the Extended Care Service.