It’s a sad state of affairs when we have to place our parents or grandparents in a nursing home. It is even worse when we have to worry about whether the employees will steal from our loved ones. Unfortunately, this happens more than you may wish to believe. It is such a huge problem, the Today Show’s Rossen Reports actually featured a whole segment on it. In a nutshell, many nursing homes do not do background checks on their employees. Many of these employees have criminal records, a huge percentage for theft. Once caught, the employee just moves to another nursing home and repeats the same behavior until he/she is caught.
Rinse, Repeat.
Nursing home advocates are pushing for stricter guidelines on employment. Unfortunately, nursing homes in the majority of states are not required to do any type of background check-so they don’t. A select few do background checks, anyway.
How do you protect your loved ones until the laws change? Ask the nursing home administration if they do thorough background checks. I’m not talking about a Goggle search or looking at public access sites such as case.net. I’m talking about a nationwide and federal criminal search they can only do through a background screening company. If administration states they do not currently do that, strongly encourage them to do so. In the meantime, join the nursing home advocates in the fight for stricter employment laws. Call your local representative. Do whatever you can to help protect your loved ones.
Contract issues with background checks
About once a month, I get a call from a company saying they are required to run certain background checks for a contract they recently
