Understanding the Role of Background Checks in Healthcare Staffing
Every healthcare worker is entrusted with patients’ health and well-being, from secretaries to care providers. Even those who are employed to provide hospital cleaning in Greenville, SC (for example) are responsible for keeping the environment clean and hygienic for patients and staff. Choosing suitable candidates starts with thorough background checks that comply with healthcare hiring regulations.
This includes education and employment verification, a federal exclusion search, and drug screenings. A healthcare facility can only afford to hire an employee qualified for the job.
Education and Employment Verification
Healthcare professionals must be trustworthy and reliable. That’s why a healthcare worker background check is necessary in the medical field. After all, patients trust their doctors and nurses with their lives. If a nursing candidate has a criminal record, it can affect everyone’s well-being.
Healthcare employers want to ensure applicants have the qualifications and experience they claim on resumes and applications. This is why education and employment verifications are an essential component of background checks for healthcare professionals.
They help ensure that a nurse, doctor, or other healthcare worker graduated from the school they say they did and worked at the hospitals or clinics they claim to have been employed.
In addition, employment verifications can identify whether a candidate was fired for reasons other than a lack of skills or serious mistakes like negligence. This information can be beneficial to healthcare staffing companies in making the right hiring decisions.
The medical industry also has specific laws and regulations that require background checks for healthcare workers. A background check for healthcare workers can include a search for “sanctions.”
Sanctions are penalties imposed on individuals (or entities, such as hospitals) for violating healthcare laws and regulations. These searches can help ensure that a hospital or other healthcare facility doesn’t hire someone excluded from federal healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Federal Exclusion Search
The employer needs to go beyond criminal history and education verification when screening healthcare employees. Healthcare employers must conduct continuous OIG, SAM, and LEIE checks on any employees, contractors, and vendors who receive reimbursement from federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Any healthcare employee on the list can cause a healthcare organization to be fined by the government for hiring or working with them.
A healthcare worker’s presence on the federal exclusion list can result from various offenses, including felony convictions relating to patient abuse and neglect and certain types of fraud or embezzlement. This search is critical to preventing healthcare workers from accessing patients’ private information and controlled substances.
Due to the national nursing shortage, some healthcare employers are tempted to reduce their background check standards. This is a dangerous move that puts the well-being of patients at risk. Conducting a thorough background check program can uncover criminal histories and other issues that would not appear on an applicant’s resume or application, allowing the employer to make a better choice for their healthcare team.
A robust healthcare background check can ultimately build trust between healthcare professionals and their patients while keeping the community safe. This is an investment that every healthcare provider must be willing to make.
Criminal History Check
A criminal record lists convictions, arrests, and other related activities. A background check will search a person’s criminal history, including records from federal, state, and county courts and law enforcement agencies. It will also include details of cases that did not result in convictions, arrests dismissed or acquitted, and charges withdrawn or otherwise resolved.
Healthcare workers often access susceptible patient information; a single data breach could be devastating. Hospitals and doctor’s offices have so much valuable data at risk, so ensuring that all new hires will keep this information secure is essential.
This is one of the reasons why a criminal background check in healthcare may go further than many other types of statements to uncover any felony convictions for embezzlement, fraud, or identity theft.
Additionally, because so many healthcare professionals work closely with vulnerable children and elders, it is critical to run a national sex offender search. A sex offender search will identify people who have been convicted of or pled guilty to sex-related crimes against children and adults.
Finally, a professional license verification search is essential to the healthcare background check process to ensure that all healthcare workers hold valid and current licenses to practice their profession.
Drug Screening
Depending on the industry and specific job requirements, healthcare organizations may conduct drug screening for candidates before offering them employment or as a part of ongoing random testing programs. A urine test, hair, saliva (oral fluid), or sweat samples can be used to evaluate for a variety of substances, including cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, prescription drugs, and other controlled substances.
In the case of medical professionals, a national sex offender search may be included as part of a background check. Due to the sensitive nature of many of their duties and the fact that they frequently work with children and vulnerable adults, this search type is essential for healthcare organizations.
Identity verification checks are also a standard component of any healthcare-specific background check, as they help to ensure that the individual being evaluated is the person they claim to be.
While some employers find that conducting a comprehensive background check for every new hire seems excessive, in specific industries, such as healthcare, this is simply the only way to ensure that they are hiring the right individuals for the jobs they have available.
To keep patients safe, healthcare organizations need to be able to trust their doctors, nurses, and other medical staff members. This trust can be put at risk without background checks and thorough drug screenings.
