Report 2019-120 Recommendation 9 Responses

Report 2019-120: Board of Registered Nursing: It Has Failed to Use Sufficient Information When Considering Enrollment Decisions for New and Existing Nursing Programs (Release Date: July 2020)

Recommendation #9 To: Registered Nursing, Board of

To identify additional facilities that might offer clinical placement slots, by October 1, 2021, and annually thereafter, BRN should compare its nursing program database with OSHPD's list of health care facilities. BRN should share the results of its comparison with nursing programs by publishing this information on its website.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2023

Recommendations 6, 7, and 9 are interdependent and are being managed through one OIS build. When the tool discussed in Recommendation 6 is complete this will allow BRN to compare its nursing program database with HCAI's list of health care facilities and this clinical capacity information will be available on the BRN's public facing website. The tool will provide up-to-date data that will be validated annually as outlined in the response to Recommendation 5 via the regulatory amendment.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From July 2023

As recommendations 6, 7, and 9 are interdependent, when the tool discussed in Recommendation 6 is complete this will allow the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) to compare its nursing program database with HCAI's list of health care facilities. The tool will provide up-to-date data that will be validated annually and will be available on the BRN's public facing website.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

Recommendations 6, 7, and 9 are interdependent and are being managed through one Office of Information Services build. When the tool discussed in Recommendation 6 is complete this will allow the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) to compare its nursing program database with HCAI's list of health care facilities and this clinical capacity information will be available on the BRN's public facing website. The tool will provide up-to-date data that will be validated annually as outlined in the response to Recommendation 5 via the regulatory amendment.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From July 2022

Recommendations 6, 7, and 9 are interdependent and are being managed through one OIS build. When the tool discussed in recommendation 6 is complete this will allow BRN to compare its nursing program database with HCAI's list of health care facilities and this clinical capacity information will be available on the BRN's public facing website. The tool will provide up to date data which will be validated annually as outlined in the response to recommendation 5 through the regulatory update.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021

The BRN has made progress towards full implementation and will continue its efforts to compare information in our nursing program database to OSHPD's list of health care facilities. Full implementation is dependent on Recommendations 6 and 7 which are in process.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

1-Year Agency Response

As discussed in 12-month response to Recommendation 6, the BRN continues to implement and expand a technological tool that will allow BRN to compile clinical facility and school specific information that will receive facility data from CDPH and OSHPD to allow for comparison. The development and testing for Phase 1 of this tool was completed on or about June 23, 2021. Upon completion of the data entry and validation discussed in Recommendations 6 and 7, the clinical capacity information will be available on the BRN's public facing website and will be updated annually.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

As discussed in Recommendation 6, the BRN continues to work with OIS and other internal stakeholders to explore a system that will allow BRN to compile clinical facility and school specific information and receive facility data from CDPH and OSHPD. However, until this system can be developed, the BRN shared various OSHPD reports including OSHPD's Healthcare Facilities List, Healthcare workforce, and Healthcare Utilization with the NECs. The NECs are using these reports when working with the Directors of Nursing at their assigned Schools when assisting them to find new and alternative clinical placements. This has been particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic as clinicals have been displaced from most acute care healthcare facilities. These reports have been referenced by the NECs and the Program Directors when working to complete requirement b. in the DCA Waiver DCA-20-03 Nursing Student Clinical Hours and again in the newly enacted statute 2786.3 (A)(i) where it states: "The list of alternative agencies or facilities listed within 25 miles of the impacted approved nursing program, campus, or location, as applicable, using the facility finder on the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development's website."

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The BRN will continue to work with OIS to explore options for a system that will allow BRN to compile clinical facility and school specific information from the EDP-P-18 and receive facility data from CDPH and OSHPD. Reports from this system would be published to BRN's website. The BRN is in the processing of developing a data landing page on its website that will contain all data reports, links, and portals.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Although BRN indicated it is exploring options to develop a system to compare clinical facility information, its date of implementation is October 2021. In the meantime, we believe BRN can and should start now by comparing its nursing program database with OSHPD's list of health care facilities to identify additional facilities that might offer clinical placement slots, as we described on pages 26 and 27 of our report.

All Recommendations in 2019-120

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.