Occupational Regulation - Office of the Legislative Auditor

60 OCCUPATIONAL REGULATION
Minnesota Statutes §214.07 specifies that some important information be
provided such as the number and type of complaints and the disposition of the
complaints, but it does not require information on the number of open cases,
including those carried over from previous years, and it does not require
information on how long it took to investigate and resolve the cases that were
closed, or the age of cases that are still open. The boards could and should, in our
view, provide a more useful report whether or not the law requires it. They should
be encouraged to go beyond what is narrowly required as many government
agencies and private companies do in their annual reports. We recommend:
· The Legislature should create a task force to reconsider the reporting
requirements in Chapter 214, and revise them in order to make the
biennial reports more useful.
The task force should include representatives from the boards subject to the
reporting requirements in Chapter 214, plus Department of Health and
Department of Commerce representatives and legislative staff. Many of the health
boards are required to submit additional information over that required of the
non-health boards, and it may be that a separate task force will be needed to
handle issues raised by these requirements. 10
The content of
the reports
should be
reviewed and
the format
improved.
Finally, the Board of Medical Practice and the Board of Nursing are required to
provide “specific information regarding complaints and communications
involving obstetrics, gynecology, prenatal care, and delivery, and the boards’
responses or dispositions.” 11 The reports of the Board of Nursing and the Board of
Medical Practice for 1998 make note of several complaints involving obstetrics,
gynecology, prenatal care, and delivery, but do not provide any real information,
nor do board representatives understand what type of information is required.
This point, of no real significance by itself, serves as an example of the nearly
total absence of useful communication between the boards and policy makers.
We also think oversight will be easier if the reports adopt common reporting
formats to the extent possible where they are providing information required by
law. This does not mean that the type of complaints about psychologists will be
the same as those as those against pharmacists. Standardization can only go so
far, but informative categories can be developed in either case and defined for the
reader in a way that is helpful. Whether or not a broader task force is established
to work on the problem, we recommend:
· The health-related boards should establish a committee or use an
existing committee to improve the reports.
10 All the health boards except Veterinary Medicine are required to forward all complaints involving
sexual contact with a patient to the Attorney General, and each board is required to include
summaries of each individual case involving sexual contact.
11 Minn. Stat. §214.07 Subd. 1a. This was added by Minn. Laws (1990), ch. 568, art. 3, secs. 6
and 7.