Whether it’s a hospital, clinic, or private physician’s office, patient safety should be the top priority for healthcare facilities. With strict mandates, requirements, and laws enacted at every level of government, medical facilities must carefully vet each potential employee.
It includes a criminal record check and verifications of professional licensure, education, and employment. In addition, a federal exclusion search helps to identify candidates who may be sanctioned for healthcare violations that prevent them from participating in Medicare and Medicaid.
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Prevent Fraud and Identity Theft
Medical background checks include criminal checks, employment verification, and sex offender searches. They also cover other significant areas for healthcare jobs, like education verification. Especially for roles that have access to sensitive information, like hospital administrators, it’s vital to ensure that candidates possess the credentials they claim on their resumes. For instance, a brain surgeon may have multiple degrees from prestigious universities, but verifying that they earned those degrees is still necessary.
Another area where healthcare workers can be particularly prone to fraud is using patients’ identity data to file fraudulent insurance claims. It is called medical identity theft, and it’s not only costly but can result in a delay in your treatment. Medical background checks should always include an OIG/SAM sanction search, which will reveal if an individual is barred from taking part in government-funded healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. This verification can protect you from hiring someone dangerous to your patients.
Prevent Misuse of Drugs
As with any industry, healthcare is a highly regulated sector where a hospital employment screening is essential. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, and all other employees who work with medicine are responsible for saving or preserving life, caring for some of our most vulnerable populations, and controlling how potentially lethal pharmaceutical products are distributed.
A comprehensive healthcare background check includes verification of a candidate’s identity, education credentials, professional licenses, registries for sex offenses and child abuse or neglect cases, and drug screening. These tests are vital for mental health care, where staff can access powerful prescription medications.
Healthcare background checks include a driving record check, which is essential for medical professionals who must travel to multiple locations or transport patients. A poor driving record may flag a candidate for excessive traffic violations, accidents, or DUIs. Those with these kinds of papers need help to handle their patients or the organization’s property.
Prevent Medical Malpractice
Healthcare is a high-stakes industry that requires immense skill, experience, judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and ethical decision-making. Those traits are what patients and their families look for in doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
A professional license verification process helps ensure that candidates are not lying about their qualifications and credentials. A simple verification process can tell you whether a candidate’s education credentials are authentic and reveal any restrictions on their medical or health-related licenses.
Drug screenings are another vital part of any background check, but they are crucial for healthcare employees because they often have access to powerful medications. Employees who misuse drugs put themselves and their coworkers in danger and can also put patients at risk of serious harm. A national sex offender search is also essential for any healthcare facility. It helps identify anyone registered as a sex offender and helps ensure patient safety in a sensitive environment.
Prevent Unlicensed Personnel
Healthcare is a high-stakes industry that requires skill, experience, discretion, judgment, and ethical decision-making. Hospitals and other medical facilities need the assurance that their employees can meet those demands, and background checks help them find it.
In addition to standard criminal checks, healthcare background verifications should include a federal exclusion search. It searches the United States government’s list of healthcare workers who aren’t eligible to receive federal funds, such as Medicare and Medicaid. It prevents a fraudulent or unqualified healthcare professional from joining the team and jeopardizing patient safety.
Healthcare background checks should also include employment and education verifications. These ensure that candidates tell the truth about their work and educational history. It can catch a doctor who faked their degree from a prestigious medical program or a nurse who lost their license for negligence. It can also flag an applicant with a history of substance abuse, which is critical for mental health care workers with access to powerful prescription drugs. Those with these histories can put patients at risk of misdiagnosis and other issues.
Prevent Sanctions
Healthcare is a high-stakes industry that requires the utmost skill, experience, judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and ethical decision-making. It also requires a comprehensive, full array of background checks, from criminal and drug to verifications that examine education, employment history, professional license status, and other credentials. Neglecting to conduct these checks can result in medical malpractice, data breaches of patient information, loss of business and reputation, and in the worst-case scenario, the loss of human life.
Background checks that include a professional license verification help to ensure that candidates are telling the truth about their qualifications. The process will reveal any restrictions on a candidate’s licensure that could prevent them from performing their job safely and legally.
Another important healthcare background check is a sanctions search, which identifies individuals and entities excluded from federal healthcare programming – most notably, Medicare and Medicaid. Developing a robust sanction screening program that includes continuous monitoring is essential for healthcare organizations that want to avoid monetary fines and lawsuits. It is also necessary to comply with OIG requirements stipulating that hospitals and other healthcare organizations must monitor exclusion lists continually.
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