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Account	Description	FY07 GAA	FY08 GAA
4510-0710	Division of Health Care Quality and Improvement For the operation of the division of health care quality and the office of patient protection; provided, that the division shall be responsible for assuring the quality of patient care provided by the commonwealth's health care facilities and services, and for protecting the health and safety of patients who receive care and services in nursing homes, rest homes, clinical laboratories, clinics, institutions for the mentally retarded and the mentally ill, hospitals and infirmaries, including the inspection of ambulance services; provided further, that the division shall track and report the number and type of dementia or Alzheimer's special care units in each facility; provided further, that the department shall provide quarterly reports of its findings to the house and senate committees on ways and means; provided further, that the division shall coordinate its work with the board of registration in medicine and the various other boards of registration under the department of public health to promote quality patient care in facilities licensed by the department, shall report specific instances of preventable medical error that involve an individualized component investigated by the board of registration and a systemic or institutional component investigated by the division, the medical, administrative, educational and disciplinary outcomes of such instances of preventable medical error and the ways in which coordination promotes quality patient care, fairness and accuracy in disciplinary actions, and better provider and facility education; provided further, that investigators shall conduct investigations of abuse, neglect, mistreatment and misappropriation; provided further, that the division shall assign such investigators to perform their duties on staggered shifts which shall be established by the division in order to provide coverage adequate to ensure that all complaints of abuse, neglect, mistreatment and misappropriation are investigated, and that the department shall investigate complaints during evening and weekend hours, as needed, to assess the validity of the complaint; provided further, that not less than 10 per cent of all routine surveys of the facilities shall be completed during evening or weekend hours; provided further, that the division shall minimize the need for payment of overtime to investigators in both emergent and non-emergent situations and shall not authorize the assignment of overtime hours for any investigator when the duties can be performed on a non-overtime basis by another investigator; provided further, that all investigators in the division of health care quality responsible for the investigations shall receive training by the Medicaid fraud control unit of the office of the attorney general under a comprehensive training program to be developed by the division and the unit; provided further, that the division shall report quarterly to the house and senate committees on ways and means on the number of incident reports and, for those reports requiring investigations under section 72H of chapter 111 of the General Laws, indicating for each such report the time in which the division: (1) completed its investigation; (2) made an evaluation and determination of the validity of the report; and (3) made a referral of such report to the appropriate agency; provided further, that if in any quarter the division maintains a backlog of cases requiring investigation that have not been investigated, evaluated and determined within the time frames established in said section 72H of said chapter 111, the division shall include in the report an explanation as to the reasons therefore; provided further, that the division shall include in the report a list of all instances of the payment of overtime for investigators and the justification therefore and in each quarter shall compare the overtime expenditures from this item with the overtime expenditures made in the corresponding quarter of fiscal year 2007; provided further, that the division shall continue to research and develop, in consultation with the nursing home industry and consumer representatives, appropriate confidential survey tools to assess consumer satisfaction in long-term care facilities; provided further, that the division shall continue a comprehensive training, education and outreach program for nursing home administrators and managers and other supervisory personnel in long-term care to improve the quality of care in long-term care facilities; provided further, that the program shall promote the use of best practices, models of quality caregiving and the culture of workforce retention within the facilities and shall focus on systemic ways to reduce deficiencies; provided further, that services funded through this item shall include, but not be limited to: education, training, intervention, support, surveillance and evaluation; provided further, that the department shall report to the house and senate committees on ways and means on the results of the program not later than April 30, 2008; and provided further, that $40,000 shall be expended for Bedside Advocates, Inc. for the development of a pilot project focused on transitional care for geriatric patients transitioning to their homes from acute care hospitals	7,994,057	8,401,687

 
 

HISTORICAL SPENDING CATEGORIES ($000)

SPENDING CATEGORY	FY04 Spending	FY05 Spending	FY06 Spending	FY07 Spending	FY08 GAA
Wages & Salaries	7,573	7,459	7,819	8,679	8,402
Pensions & Benefits	55	0	0	0	0
Operating Expenses	30	3	3	0	0
Public Assistance	0	0	0	20	0
TOTAL	7,658	7,462	7,822	8,699	8,402

* FY07 Projected Spending includes the budget plus nearly $1 billion in spending from FY06 supplemental budgets.

 

 

Earmarks

EARMARK DESCRIPTION	FY08
Bedside Advocates Inc. elder transitional care pilot project	40,000