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Inspector General briefs commission on LCMC audit; auditor finds long hiring delays in parish personnel department
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Summary
The IG presented an audit of LCMC/West Jefferson showing $263 million spent toward a $340 million capital commitment; auditor Jim Mitchell reported parish average time-to-hire of 341 days and recommended job analyses, updated testing methods, and training for hiring managers.
At the Jan. 21 meeting, the Inspector General summarized a suite of reports and audits, highlighted a public audit of LCMC Health’s compliance with the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) for West Jefferson Medical Center, and presented ongoing work on several procurement and evaluation items.
Erica Smith, an auditor on the IG team, told commissioners the 2015 cooperative endeavor agreement required LCMC Health to invest $340 million in capital expenditures over 15 years for West Jefferson Medical Center. Smith reported LCMC had invested approximately $263 million to date, leaving roughly $76 million remaining under the commitment. Audit reviewers inspected vouchers, checks, invoices and the actual equipment to verify expenditures and said they found broad compliance overall and evidence of substantial capital projects, including upgrades to the emergency department, outpatient surgery and investments in medical equipment (Smith cited roughly $32 million in medical equipment purchases).
The IG also noted technical issues: the IG and ECC websites are hosted on an older Joomla build that will soon lose vendor support, and a shared RFP has been issued to procure a redesigned site and move to a new domain.
On personnel, auditor Jim Mitchell presented an evaluation covering hires from Oct. 2022 through Sept. 2023. Mitchell reported an average time-to-hire of 341 days for the sampled period and identified several weaknesses: the personnel office did not perform job analyses before posting positions, written tests were outdated and often did not measure knowledge, skills and abilities, and communications and training around the applicant tracking system needed improvement. Mitchell recommended establishing time-to-hire goals, requiring job analyses before posting, updating test instruments every three to five years, and providing targeted training for hiring managers. Personnel department representatives provided an extensive written response and committed to steps including revising position descriptions and meeting department directors during the coming year.
Commissioners asked whether the reduced capital commitment in the final term represented a shortfall; the IG and audit staff said LCMC had exceeded spending in earlier commitment periods and remained cooperative, but that the parish lacked a prior deep compliance review until this audit.
