Governor Seeks Hundreds of New Positions for Department of Public Health

Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget for FY 2015-16 would add more than $30 million and about 260 positions for the Licensing & Certification Division of the California Department of Public Health and its subcontract with Los Angeles County.

The explanation for the increase is shocking. One would expect that there must have been a huge increase in its workload to justify such an enormous expansion of its workforce, but that is not so. According to the Department’s Budget Change Proposals, the Department is requesting the new positions primarily because its prior methodology for assessing its staffing needs failed to consider that inspectors were needed to investigate its vast backlog of complaints or to finish complaint investigations and write reports after onsite visits were conducted. Even with all of the new positions, the Department estimates it will take approximately four years to complete the current pending investigation workload.

In other words, the Department allowed thousands of complaints involving nursing home abuse and neglect to languish for years because its leaders could not competently perform the most basic assessment of its staffing needs. Some of these failed leaders remain at the Department and should be replaced by qualified and competent managers before it is awarded any more money.

CANHR calls on Governor Brown to swiftly appoint a new leadership team at the Department of Public Health. The new leaders should have the qualifications, experience and will to build the Licensing & Certification Division into a premier consumer protection agency that will protect the interests of nursing home residents and patients of other health facilities throughout California.