The Connecticut Department of Public Health has launched a comprehensive background check program for employees of nursing homes and other long-term care agencies that strengthens protections for the elderly and disabled residents.
The background check program helps nursing homes and other providers identify whether a job seeker has a disqualifying criminal conviction or other patient abuse or neglect information that could make him or her unsuitable to work directly with residents.
“With this system, Connecticut has implemented an important safeguard which will help protect the health and safety of some of our most vulnerable residents and clients,” said DPH Commissioner Dr. Jewel Mullen in a news release.
Long-term care facilities or providers covered under the new program include nursing homes, residential care homes, home health agencies, assisted living services agencies, intermediate care facilities for persons with intellectual disabilities, long-term care hospitals and hospice providers.
Previously, it was up to each care facility to decide whether to do background checks, and the primary method for doing so was to use sites such as the state and national sex offender registries and the Connecticut nurse’s aide registry. But, while these basic checks catch some offenders, there were gaps that allow people with troubling backgrounds to slip through the cracks.
In 2011, the state Legislature voted to approve a more intensive background check program, which would include fingerprinting prospective workers and running the prints through State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation databases.
Since then, DPH has worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to establish a web-based program called the Applicant Background Check Management System.
The management system provides long-term care facilities with a web portal to submit information on potential employees or volunteers of long-term care facilities and to obtain fingerprint-based criminal history records checks, as well as checks of several relevant registries, prior to hiring for employment. Long-term care facilities subject to the background check program must register with the background check management system. ..Source.. by Amanda Cuda
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