THE VALUED VOICE

The Office of Plan Review and Inspections (OPRI), the office within the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ (DHS’s) Division of Quality Assurance (DQA) charged with hospital and other health care facility construction and remodeling plan reviews and inspections, hosted an in-person stakeholder meeting on July 19. During the meeting, OPRI and DQA leaders introduced new staff, provided important updates for hospitals and other organizations and presented timely issues being considered by DHS.
 
As part of an overview of OPRI’s activities, Office Director Fokruddin Khondaker and Construction Supervisor Holly Kitchell stressed OPRI’s preference for digital construction plan submissions and indicated that they are working to enable electronic payment of the required fees. OPRI is completing its review of hospital plan submissions in about 15 days. To address a pandemic-related survey backlog, OPRI has rehired an OPRI surveyor as a limited-term employee. OPRI representatives also provided a technical overview of Aurora Medical Center in Grafton’s modular expansion project.
 
DQA Director Ann Hansen updated the group on hospital-at-home activity in the state and the discussions within DHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services aimed at refining the state and federal hospital-at-home authorities and standards and potentially extending current flexibilities.
 
Additional information about OPRI and its processes and activities is available on its webpage.