Inspector General (IG) Robert P. Storch announced today that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) released the report titled “Evaluation of the DoD Internal Controls Related to Patient Eligibility and Pharmaceutical Management within the National Capital Region Executive Medicine Services.” The report examined the extent to which the DoD executive medicine facilities within the National Capital Region, including the White House Medical Unit, implemented internal controls to ensure safe pharmaceutical practices and patient eligibility.”
The DoD OIG concluded that all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit’s reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards. In addition, the Military Health System senior leaders did not provide oversight of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations. Without oversight from qualified pharmacy staff, the White House Medical Unit’s pharmaceutical management practices may have been subject to prescribing errors and inadequate medication management, increasing the risk to the health and safety of patients treated within the unit. Additionally, we concluded that the White House Medical Unit:
· provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of Federal law and regulation and DoD policy;
· dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff; and
· did not follow DoD guidelines for verifying patient eligibility, and the Defense Health Agency Director and Service Surgeons General did not provide oversight of the White House Medical Unit’s eligibility practices.
To help address these issues, the DoD OIG recommended that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and the Defense Health Agency Director develop policies, procedures, and oversight plans to manage controlled and non-controlled medications and patient eligibility for the White House Medical Unit and for all executive medicine services in the Military Health System. The DoD OIG also recommended that the Defense Health Agency Director establish controls for billing and cost recovery for outpatient medical services provided to non-military U.S. Government senior officials.
IG Storch said, “We conducted this evaluation to ensure that the practices, procedures, and controls in executive medicine facilities in the National Capital Area led to safe pharmaceutical practices. The recommendations in this report, if implemented, will improve and implement policies, procedures, and controls for executive medicine services and patients in the National Capital Region.”