John Keel, CPA Texas State Auditor SAO: Reports: An Audit Report on Performance Measures at the Board of Nursing

An Audit Report on Performance Measures at the Board of Nursing

October 2008

Report Number 09-006

Overall Conclusion

The Board of Nursing (Board) reported reliable results for all nine key performance measures tested for fiscal year 2007. A performance measure is considered reliable if it is certified or certified with qualification. Specifically:

•  Eight key performance measures were certified. These included:

  - Percentage of Licensees With No Recent Violations (RN).

  - Percentage of Licensees With No Recent Violations (LVN).

  - Percent of Licensees Who Renew Online (RN).

  - Percent of Licensees Who Renew Online (LVN).

  - Number of Individual Licenses Renewed (RN).

  - Number of Individual Licenses Renewed (LVN).

  - Percent of Complaints Resulting in Disciplinary Action (RN).

  - Percent of Complaints Resulting in Disciplinary Action (LVN).

•  One key performance measure--Total Number of Programs Licensed (LVN)--was certified with   qualification because the Board does not have documented policies and procedures for collecting, calculating, and entering data into ABEST for this performance measure.

In addition, the Board should strengthen specific information system controls for its automated Nursing System, which is the system it uses to record licensing and enforcement activities. Auditors identified weaknesses in program change controls, physical security, and disaster recovery testing. Despite these weaknesses, testing of the data used during this audit provided assurance that the Nursing System contained accurate data for the nine performance measures tested for fiscal year 2007.

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