Special report. Conducting pre-employment background checks: where to get help

In the December 1994 issue, we warned of the need to conduct adequate background checks of physicians, nurses, administrators, and other types of employees. A number of examples were presented in which hospitals put themselves at risk by hiring: an administrator with a phony doctorate and master's degrees; a nurse who had been found guilty of stealing drugs when she worked at a nursing home; a male nurse who had been arrested for raping patients under anesthesia (he had previously had his teaching license revoked for sexual misconduct with a student); a nursing aide arrested for fondling a 73-year-old woman in her bed who had been convicted of a similar attack at a nearby medical center three years earlier; and a doctor who had served jail time for attempted murder, who was hired by a leading hospital as a psychiatric resident. As was pointed out in the December article, conducting adequate background checks is not always an easy matter, even if your hospital has such a policy. However, a number of firms have emerged to provide improved services in this area. In this report, we will bring you up to date on a firm that specializes in background checks for health care industry job applicants, another firm that maintains a database of work histories of thousands of officers, and a firm that claims its integrity test can spot potential thieves.