Hospitals have been hiring criminals. Or so the story goes, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The article maintains that King-Harbor Hospital, right here in the City of the Angels, has been hiring anything but angels as part of the hospital staff. The hospital will fire nineteen employees and discipline another 45.
The article reports that the Department of Health didn’t exactly move like the wind in reviewing these cases or disciplining or dismissing employees. With all this one has to wonder who was doing the background checks, if anyone. Apparently Human Resources not only neglected their preemployment screening duties here but in other facilities as well.
You have to wonder who has been wheeling you or your loved ones around the hospital. Does it really matter? Well, maybe. Considering the amount of theft, where patients are relieved of cash and valuables, the criminal records of hospital employees should be factored into the mix. Theft can be pretty rampant at our hospitals.
So if there is any lesson to this, it is to run background searches on your employees. At the very least, run the criminal records background searches, so you don’t go embarrassing yourself with headlines that King-Harbor Hospital has recently enjoyed. These are tough economic times out there, and the last thing you need are desperate employees running your business into the ground.
Check them out before you hire.
