Information System

National Health Practitioner Data Bank Has Not Been Well Managed Gao ID: IMTEC-90-68 August 21, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) development of the National Practitioner Data Bank, intended to provide information on health care practitioners whose professional competence or conduct has been questioned through malpractice litigation or other adverse professional actions.

GAO found that: (1) HRSA did not ensure that the data bank will protect the confidentiality of practitioner information from unauthorized access and manipulation; (2) HRSA did not effectively manage its data bank project; (3) HRSA either misplaced or did not develop critical documentation necessary to ensure effective management control and oversight of the project; (4) HRSA assigned some critical project development functions to the contractor developing the data bank, since it believed that its staff lacked the training and experience to perform them; and (5) the project's total cost was uncertain, since contract modifications were necessary, and could increase from $15.8 million to $25 million.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.