NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans East Hospital was given a clean bill of health in its use of public credit cards, correcting a string of issues that came up in previous internal audits, according to a report published Thursday by the New Orleans Office of Inspector General.
The hospital, a city medical facility on Read Boulevard, effectively implemented and executed much tighter controls on credit card use than in the past, the 17-page report states.
“NOEH has demonstrated their commitment to our mission by effectively monitoring and enforcing the use of credit cards,” Inspector General Ed Michel wrote in a summary of the report.
The hospital managed as part of the LCMC chain of hospitals and clinics, only used its credit cards for official business-related expenses, and documented all purchases with itemized receipts, the report states.
The findings were a drastic improvement from previous in-house audits that found sloppy record-keeping and placed the hospital on the list of the city’s “high-risk entities,” putting them in line for the OIG audit.
OIG investigators found a few minor issues that need to be addressed by the hospital, including the need for employees to get written approval ahead of credit card purchases and maintaining written logs “for who had possession of the credit cards at all times.”
In its response to the audit, NOEH “agreed with the OIG’s findings and recommendations in this report and was responsive to OIG’s requests throughout the audit,” the report concludes.
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