When you think of healthcare workers you first think of caring and nurturing souls who are sensitive to the needs of their frail and informed patients. You think of them in a positive context, people who care for the elderly and the young. You think of them as honest and capable. If you do, then think again.
Now I want to be clear about those who work in the healthcare industry. Most employees in the healthcare industry are in fact capable and caring, tending to our more vulnerable citizens with the best intention. They are often underpaid for what can be stressful work. They can be essential assets in helping the ill improve their lives or to sustain against the ravages of terrible disease or injury. According to an article by Michael Finney on ABC7, there is a detailed depiction of fraud and elderly abuse.
But then there are those who view their charges as prey. As been often reported there are innumerable incidents of substance abuse, fraud, theft, and physical and mental abuses. There are myriad instances of abuse and studies have been done to demonstrate just how dire employment conditions are int he healthcare industry. Staffing groups either fail to conduct background checks or conduct inadequate background checks. This is often a case of negligence or a deliberate attempt to slide over any incriminating background searches in the employment screening procedure. The reason? Staffing agencies are in business to get their employees hired. And some staffing agencies are simply not as ethical as others and will overlook or fail to search for criminal records, allowing healthcare patients to take unnecessary risks.
Simply put, the case illustrated by the article in ABC News is a long way from an isolated incident. Background checks conducted by the state under a new law passed last year have found nearly 1,000 convicted felons working or seeking jobs as caretakers for seniors and disabled in California. However, California law only requires background checks when the patient is either so poor he can qualify for in home family assistance or rich enough that he can afford to hire caretakers also capable of private medical care. The victim in the article was in the segment of the middle class paying for her own care out of pocket and currently unprotected by the new law.
I am sure this will not be the last incident we will read about where a patient is victimized by healthcare workers. This process will continue until stricter regulation will be brought to bear. It is also necessary to mandate that any staffing agency recruiting healthcare works not only conduct background checks but a prescribed series of background checks that will conform to a uniform level of employment screening standards.
The public should not have to tolerate a condition where with healthcare workers are recruited after undergoing shoddy on non-existent scrutiny. You cannot staff healthcare workers with substance abuse issues, or serious criminal records, or with past disciplinary actions for abusing their patients, and not expect consequences. When the consequences are persistent, it is time to change the course of action. We need regulations both at the state and public level and for the staffing agencies responsible for recruiting healthcare workers. Otherwise more patients will be damaged from the experience of being sick and needing assistance.