Adjusting Internal Audit Priorities in Healthcare Organizations

Pre-COVID-19 Survey Results and Current Audit Planning Considerations

Next-Generation Internal Audit in Healthcare: It’s Time to Ride the Wave of Transformation and Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought massive waves of disruption and unique challenges to the healthcare industry. These waves have driven healthcare delivery organisations to find more innovative means to treat patients safely — while staying afloat.

This white paper covers three areas of focus, two related to the analysis of the healthcare industry-specific results from the 2020 Next Generation of Internal Auditing Survey and one looking at the current state of healthcare internal audit functions:

Prioritising Next-Generation Internal Auditing

Analysis of the survey results finds that many healthcare organisations need to step up their internal audit efforts in more than a few areas if they aim to build a next-generation internal audit function.

Pre-COVID-19 Audit Plan Priorities

Analysis of the survey results also finds that many of the top priorities from previous years are still considered top priorities in 2020. Interestingly, enterprise risk management (ERM) took its place at the top, foreshadowing unique risks that healthcare providers’ internal audit functions would have to face this year. While these top 10 priorities were assessed pre-COVID-19 and may not be the current top audit priorities for all internal audit functions, they are still priorities that should not be overlooked.

Current Audit Priorities: Detailed Risk Assessment and Audit Planning Considerations

We conclude with a look at current audit priorities and new and emerging challenges and opportunities for healthcare internal audit functions.

Topics

Internal Audit and Corporate Governance

Industries