Avoiding bad hires requires healthcare insight, auditing
Avoiding bad hires requires healthcare insight, auditing
Screening of potential hires is particularly important in the healthcare industry because many employees have access to vulnerable patients or protected health and financial information. But who is overseeing that screening? The risk manager or a mid-level manager in human resources? Maybe an outside recruiter?
Too often, however, the screening is left to administrators who have no real understanding of the particular risks posed by allowing someone with a bad history to work in a healthcare setting, says Diana Acuna, healthcare product manager at HireRight, a company based in Irvine, CA, that provides screening services to employers.
p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px">“The people who are actually responsible for the background checks of these caregivers often are administrative recruiters who have no previous experience in healthcare or may not understand the dynamic of what is involved with hiring healthcare providers,” Acuna says. “It is helpful for them to understand exactly how those risks can play out in a healthcare setting and how that situation can be different from other employment settings.”Acuna worked with a hospital once that had hired several people who should have been prevented from working in healthcare because they showed up on Medicare exclusion lists. The hospital ended up paying $500,000 in penalties once government regulators became involved, she says. “That was really just a human error by the person doing the screening, due to a lack of understanding how critical certain screening and exclusion checks are in healthcare,” Acuna says.
Avoiding hires is complicated by 2012 guidance from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In April 2012, the EEOC stopped short of banning criminal background checks but said refusing to hire someone who has a criminal record could constitute illegal discrimination if such decisions disproportionately affect minority groups. Any decision not to hire must be “job related and consistent with business necessity” and must take into account factors such as the nature and gravity of the criminal offense, the amount of time since the conviction, and the relevance of the offense to the job being sought, the panel said. (See the story below for more on criminal background checks.)
Acuna advises healthcare providers to audit any vendor providing screening services. Initial screening of potential hires is only the start, she notes. Healthcare employees should be screened periodically for exclusions, license problems, and any other issues that might arise during employment.
“A lot of organizations don’t follow through after the in initial screening. It’s a big mistake to do the bare minimum,” Acuna says. “Healthcare providers tend to be better about this than other employers, but still, you need to know what your vendors and recruiters are doing to screen out bad hires. Having them tell you that they are screening and taking care of it is not enough.”
Source
- Diana Acuna, Healthcare Product Manager, HireRight, Irvine, CA. Telephone: (949) 428-5800. Email: [email protected].
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.