I have an incident of a CCO removing patients' charts from medical records after hours, did not sign them out, and took them to a nurse--who is out on FMLA, and having her do chart audits. Upon my investigation, those charts have the audits check-off lists signed by the nurse on FMLA! Help!

It is hard to say because the nurse may be acting as an independent contractor and making a few extra dollars while having to take time off from her full time job. Consulting to a certain extent is allowed. Are the audits being done correctly?

Yes, the quality director was archiving the closed chart audits. The nurse was on FMLA, and has admitted to performing the audits while out. She was directed by the Chief Clinical Officer to do the audits. The officer brought the patients charts to her home.

I completely agree with CDO3 here. She may be acting independently to do audits. As long as she has signed the check off lists as the actual nurse doing the audits there shouldn't be a problem.