MQA Quarterly Performance Report

The Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), required by section 456.005 and section 456.025(9) , Florida Statutes, offers the Division of Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) an opportunity to update its 22 health care provider boards and four councils, as well as all stakeholders and health care consumers, on the important work performed in health care regulation. MQA upholds the Department’s mission to protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts. MQA collaborates with other stakeholder agencies at the state and federal level, and our regional investigative offices work with local officials and law enforcement agencies to stop and prevent dangerous unlicensed activity within Florida’s communities. The QPR for the first quarter of the 2017-2018 fiscal year provides statutorily required information on revenue, expenditures and performance measures, and highlights MQA’s accomplishments, outstanding employees and successful partnerships. LICENSING ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION MQA received 29,673 licensee applications and issued 25,042 initial licenses in the first quarter. MQA has made comprehensive efforts through rule reduction and efficiency proposals to eliminate unnecessary regulation and barriers in licensure processes. The division will continue to make improvements throughout the year to better serve Florida’s health care licensees and applicants. MQA is committed to informing Florida health care professionals and residents about the licensing, regulation, and enforcement services it provides. For example, health care professionals who submitted fingerprints as a condition of licensure on or after Jan. 1, 2013, are required to have their fingerprints retained in Florida’s Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse). MQA’s communications services throughout the first quarter provided information about fingerprint retention requirements to affected health care practitioners. This included updating board websites, creating a new site page on www.flhealthsource.gov, and sending out mailers to licensees. For more information about this requirement, visit www.flhealthsource.gov/background-screening . In the first quarter, 232 complaints of unlicensed activity were received. Additionally, 118 cease and desist orders were issued to unlicensed individuals, whose unregulated and illegal activity could be disfiguring and even deadly to victims. MQA referred 111 complaints to law enforcement for potential criminal violations. 6 MQA Q1 2017-201 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY