MADISON, Wis. — A state audit launched Wednesday faults the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for the way it awarded grants and ventilators to well being care suppliers throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s chief, in her response, defended the awards, emphasizing that the cash and ventilators had been handed out throughout a public well being emergency with the objective of protecting well being care suppliers open and capable of present care to sufferers.

The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau reviewed documentation for 31 grants totaling $3.2 million that had been part of almost $160 million in grants the state company distributed between the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 by way of June 2022. The cash went to long-term well being care and emergency medical companies suppliers who had been on the entrance traces of the pandemic.

The audit mentioned 10 grant recipients awarded $518,700 didn't submit ample documentation to assist their candidates or the quantities requested.

Kirsten Johnson, the state well being secretary, mentioned in her response letter careworn that the applications reviewed “were implemented during highly unusual circumstances of the public health emergency.”

“DHS was required to make quick decisions to provide funds to the long-term care, emergency medical services, and hospital providers, who needed them to continue to provide care during this critical emergency,” Johnson wrote.

She mentioned the company disagreed with the audit’s findings that documentation collected by DHS from the grant recipients was inadequate to show want throughout the COVID-19 disaster. Agency employees “had significant back and forth communication with providers to ensure we were comfortable with the level of documentation to support funding requests” at a time it was attempting to make sure suppliers may stay in enterprise, Johnson mentioned.

However, the company will take the corrective steps beneficial within the audit, together with searching for extra documentation from the grant recipients, Johnson mentioned.

The audit additionally faulted how DHS dealt with distribution of greater than 1,500 ventilators the division bought and maintained for almost $39 million throughout the first two years of the pandemic. The ventilators went to hospitals, hearth and rescue departments, and emergency medical companies suppliers.

The audit mentioned the well being division didn't execute mortgage agreements with everybody who obtained ventilators, didn't stock the ventilator-related gear it bought, didn't repeatedly monitor whether or not the ventilators had been maintained by the agency with which the company contracted, or develop a plan for the long run use of the ventilators.

Six ventilators, with a mixed worth of $122,300, had been lacking as of January, the audit mentioned.

Distributing the ventilators throughout the emergency response firstly of the pandemic, mixed with excessive employees turnover, made the company’s job troublesome, Johnson wrote in her response.

“Auditing a program established in these conditions, but assuming optimal conditions, fails to account for the dynamic nature of the emergency that DHS staff along with other state partners navigated,” she mentioned.

The company agrees with the audit’s advice to develop a plan for future use of the ventilators, Johnson mentioned.

For extra info, go to The Washington Times COVID-19 useful resource web page.

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