The Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico issues a favorable opinion with exceptions on the professional and consulting services contract granted to a company to manage the Emergency Room of the Dr. Ramón Ruiz Arnau University Hospital in the Bayamón Region.
The Report reveals that the Company that managed the Emergency Room billed, and the Hospital paid it for, 204 hours in excess equivalent to $17,340, because the Medical Director did not provide services in that capacity. The Company also billed, and the Hospital paid it for, 152 hours in excess for services that the Medical Director did not provide either as an emergency physician or as medical director. In addition, the Company billed, and the Hospital paid, some $12,500 monthly for administrative expenses that were not stipulated in the contract.
The audit notes that after the selection and granting of the contract to the Company to manage the Emergency Room, it requested that the agreement be amended because otherwise it would not provide its services to the Hospital. The amendments requested, among others, consisted of eliminating the requirement to have Triage nurses and allowing the Medical Director to serve at the same time as administrator and emergency physician. When the Hospital accepted the amendment to eliminate the Triage nurses, it benefited the selected Company over the other offers since this was precisely one of the requirements of the Request for Proposal and one of the reasons why the other offers were rejected.
The Report covers the period from July 1, 2012 to July 31, 2016.
See Audit Report DA-17-38
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