Not all background screening companies are created equal. At least that is what the Illinois Nursing Home Safety Task Force concluded. According to the Chicago Sun-Times the Illinois State Health Department terminated its contract with its current vendor for services regarding conducting background checks on former convicts who were now living in nursing homes. These background checks were to assess the possible menace these ex-convicts may pose to, presumably, nursing home staff and other residents.
According to the article, the Illinois Nursing Home Safety Task Force decided that the background reports run by the current vendor did not always return on time and contained incomplete information. The Illinois State Police will now be conducting these background checks, which will supposedly save the state taxpayers some of the $2 Million, annually, the Health Department was paying the vendor. It is also believed that by having the State Police conduct the necessary background checks, they screening reports will be returned in a more acceptable time frame.
Given the numerous reports regarding health care workers and their former criminal convictions, histories of drug abuse, and the psychological and physical abuse of nursing home residents, it should also be necessary to be conducting background checks on these employees as well. I woudl assume that each nursing home is conducting the necessary background checks as part of their pre-employment screening programs.
It will be interesting to see how much more efficient the Illinois State Police are at handling these background screening duties than private vendors. I know the statewide criminal records search provided by the Illinois Highway Patrol is a good background searching instrument. So the prognosis is good for an effective transition in checking out the ex-convicts living in nursing homes.
