Nursing Home Background Checks

Nursing home background checks have become compulsory. An applicant seeking employment into a nursing home needs to undergo a series of background checks, which is carried out by the employer. These checks are carried out for the safety of the safety and well being of residents of nursing home. Laws and regulations passed have made such checks mandatory in many states in the US. According to the law, an applicant may refer to a person seeking employment in a nursing home, a present employee of a nursing home who seeks a promotion in the capacity or an individual referred by a provisional agency to a nursing home. Similarly, nursing home refers to supported living amenities, intermediate care amenities for people with mental retardation, vicinity group homes, family care homes and rest residential amenities.

The laws relating to the hiring of applicants have become extremely stringent with an increase in the rate of crime against the inhabitants of these nursing homes who often tend to be a soft target for such criminals. The law states that no employer who runs a nursing home or a management company or other business entity that commits to operate a nursing home may hire or employ any applicant without getting hold of a report of the person's entire criminal history record. This may be obtained from the State Bureau of Identification. Similarly no agency, comprising but not restricted to temporary employment agencies, may refer an applicant to a nursing home without obtaining a report of the person's entire criminal history record from the State Bureau of Identification. The employer must instantaneously dismiss any employee upon notification of the employee's conviction of any disqualifying crime. An employer who employs an applicant for without conducting suitable checks shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $1,000 or more than $5,000 for each violation.

A nursing home is a place where generally sick, aged or handicapped patients reside in order to receive adequate treatment. These patients tend to form easy prey for criminals who take advantage of their disability.