Authors: Maria Pasparaki, Maria Kyriakou, Augustinos Dimitras

Title: Internal Audit in Public Hospitals: General Hospital Venizeleio

Abstract

Abstract

The phenomenon of corruption and mismanagement is particularly important not only in the public, but also in the private sector, showing that the establishment of internal audit is vital to the functioning of an organization. The present study attempts to present the necessary design, and the tools that should be adopted by public hospitals in order to establish internal audit units. There is no doubt that, hospitals are complex organizations where the internal audit unit should correct the management mistakes that are associated with misinformation, inadequate control, bureaucracy, increased cost of medical operations, corruption, opacity, unnecessary services etc.

This research is a case study of the Venizeleio General Hospital of Heraklion, and analyzes the hospital’s framework and focuses on the implementation of internal audit procedures. The methodology adopted through questionnaires. Each questionnaire includes100 questions in 10 parts. 70 questionnaires were distributed to the hospital staff and 52 were replied back. The questionnaires include closed-ended questions in a rating scale such as the Likert scale. In this study, we present the most interesting replies based on the writers’ views.

From the results of the survey, we conclude that staff is not sufficiently informed about internal audit procedures. The active participation of the personnel in audit issues is established with adequate training and participation in the procedures that are followed. The limited number of the responses prevents to go to additional remarks about this research in public hospitals.

However, research in other public hospitals will help to go to further suggestions and improve our findings.

Keywords: Internal audit, internal audit standards, Venizeleio hospital