Small, rural hospital: OR RN's recovering their own patients

I really need some help here. I am a new manager of a Surgical Services Department at a rural hospital. All of this is new to me, but especially that of working at a small rural hospital where the "rules" seem to be quite different to that of a large hospital. What I am REALLY struggling with right now is trying to get a understanding of the OR RN's recovering their own patients. All that is required is that they be ACLS certified and receive a brief orientation. As we all know, just because you have earned your ACLS certification that doesn't guarantee that you have a clear understanding of the knowledge that is needed. We also do not have any designated PACU RN's-only the OR RN's. This whole thing just scares me to death-and keeps me awake at night.

Unfortunately, this practice is not exclusive to just this rural hospital. There are other surrounding rural hospitals that perform this practice. Now, my background is exclusively in the operating room-I do not have Pre-op or PACU experience-but this doesn't seem right. My perception has always been that the PACU is an area that requires RN's that are skilled and well-versed in the many different scenarios that can go wrong. I don't see my OR RN's being that knowledgeable (not as knowledgeable as they should be, in my opinion). I am also pretty sure that these RN's have not taken a basic EKG course either.

I know that rural hospitals tend to be much tighter with their money, thus forcing departments to have to take on many different roles. Am I off-base here? I have only been working at this hospital for a couple of months and am dealing with SO many issues. I am going to talk to administration about this next week, as I am gathering as much data as I can to support my position. I am going to present my findings and ask that the legal department look into this, as I really need to know what is right and what is wrong. Also-there is only 1 RN that is recovering each patient. From what I understand, there should be 2?

Thank you.