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An Audit Report on Performance Measures at the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners

February 2014

Report Number 14-018

Overall Conclusion

The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (Board) reported unreliable results for 2 (50 percent) of the 4 key performance measures tested for fiscal year 2012. In addition, the Board reported unreliable results for the 2 key performance measures tested for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2013. A result is considered reliable if it is certified or certified with qualification.

Fiscal Year 2012 Results

For fiscal year 2012, two of the four key performance measures tested were certified with qualification. Those two performance measures were:

- Number of Licenses Renewed (Individuals): Dentists.

- Percent of New Individual Licenses Issued Online.

For all four performance measures tested, the Board had not updated and approved its policies and procedures for collecting, calculating, and reporting the performance measures. Additionally, the Board did not have documented reviews of the performance measure calculations and the data entered into the Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST).

Factors prevented certification of the following two key performance measures tested for fiscal year 2012:

- Average Time to Resolve Complaints Pending Litigation (Days).

- Percent of Complaints Resulting in Disciplinary Action.

For both performance measures, the Board uses complaint information in its licensing and enforcement system, Versa, to calculate the results. However, the Board did not retain documentation to demonstrate that complaint data was successfully migrated from its previous system during fiscal year 2012. As a result, auditors could not verify the accuracy and reliability of the data used to calculate and report the results for those two performance measures for fiscal year 2012. In addition, for the Average Time to Resolve Complaints Pending Litigation (Days) performance measure, the Board deviated from the calculation methodology listed in the performance measure's definition in ABEST.

For the Average Time to Resolve Complaints Pending Litigation (Days) performance measure, the Board had determined that 180 days was the expected level of performance for fiscal year 2012. For fiscal year 2012, the Board reported in ABEST that the average time was 659.55 days to resolve complaints pending litigation.

For the Percent of Complaints Resulting in Disciplinary Action performance measure, the Board reported to ABEST that, for fiscal year 2012, it resolved 887 of the 976 complaints it received in fiscal year 2012. Of those 887 resolved complaints, the Board reported that 222 complaints (25.03 percent) were resolved by disciplinary action.

Fiscal Year 2013 Results

The Board reported results for two of the performance measures audited on a quarterly basis. Auditors tested the reported results for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2013 and determined the following:

- The reported results for Number of Licenses Renewed (Individuals): Dentists were inaccurate because the Board used incorrect data to calculate the performance measure results. As a result, the actual performance as calculated by auditors was not within 5 percent of the Board's reported performance.

- Factors prevented certification of Average Time to Resolve Complaints Pending Litigation (Days) due to the data reliability issues discussed above. For the first three quarters of fiscal year 2013, the Board reported in ABEST that it took an average of 116.77 days to resolve complaints pending litigation.

Auditors communicated other, less significant issues related to the Board's performance measure methodologies separately in writing to Board management.

Contact the SAO about this report.

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