State Court of Auditors criticizes the lack of cooperation between nursing homes

2023-05-30 09:05:00

Only St. Georgen an der Gusen dared to take the first step. Four other community old people’s and nursing homes (Frankenburg, Lenzing, Mehrnbach, Ried im Traunkreis) have not implemented many of the recommendations of the State Audit Office (LHR). This emerges from an LHR initiative check, which deals with the implementation of the suggestions for improvement.

In order to use the synergies, the LHR has suggested cooperation between all homes in the respective district in the past audits. “In view of the general increase in costs, synergy effects should be used to reduce costs,” says the test report. Because four of the five homes examined did not cooperate with other providers, the LHR renewed its recommendation to the state of Upper Austria “to influence the providers”. The LHR sees opportunities in the areas of procurement, maintenance, insurance, telecommunications, energy, human resources, knowledge transfer, blackouts and quality issues in care.

Two municipalities did not implement the recommendations for improving cost and performance accounting. In addition, not all communities would comply with the guidelines of the Department of Social Affairs. For example, the required consistency with the accounts of the respective municipality would be missing.

More uniformity when moving home

The LHR also criticizes the fact that moving into a home is not always uniformly regulated. The Care Fund Act stipulates that people in need of care may be admitted to a home from care allowance level four. If, for example, there are social reasons, admission with a lower level is also possible. In order to ensure a uniform procedure, an objectification sheet was created. “In the tested homes, the LHR perceived different procedures when moving into the home and when objectifying the future residents,” says the test report.

The LHR criticized the fact that the Directorate of Internal and Municipal Affairs last checked the management of a social welfare association in 2011. In order to reduce the survey effort in the homes in Upper Austria, the planned digitization project of the social affairs department should also be implemented quickly. The LHR also called for the country’s home supervision to be increased in terms of personnel.

The LHR found that the homes are generally confronted with a tense staffing situation, resulting in lower home occupancy and negative operating results.