Texas agencies using state background checks
Information is free but not always up-to-date
For a look at how the federally mandated background checks might work, Private Duty Homecare has talked to a private duty agency in Texas, a state that handles these checks through a state agency.
Texas private duty home health agencies are required by the state Department of Health to run criminal background checks on unlicensed attendants within 72 hours of hiring them, says Sharon Newton, RN, CDMS, assistant director of state programs for Outreach Health Services in Garland, TX.
To run checks on potential employees, agencies submit a state form with candidate names, along with identifying information such as date of birth and any aliases the candidates might have used. This information is faxed to the Department of Health Criminal History Check division, which runs it through a computer system.
The system, though, is only as current as the information the local sheriff departments submit, Newton says. The reality is that oftentimes information about new arrests or convictions sits in the sheriffs office and doesn't get to the central computer.
Because of this problem, Outreach requires that if an attendant leaves the agency and becomes an employee again more than six months later, the office must process a new hire packet on the employee, including sending in a new criminal history check.
The background check is free for the agencies, but results can take up to six weeks. The law, however, has a provision that states if an agency deems a candidate as being hired in an emergency situation, that person can begin working before the background results are back. The agency has to classify the person as being hired in an emergency setting, Newton says.
All attendants classified as emergency hires
Outreach considers all its attendants as having been hired in an emergency situation because of the nature of the work. The agency would be out of compliance with its referral sources if it didn’t place an attendant in the home quickly, Newton explains.
Using the emergency status, though, means that if a background check finds a criminal conviction, the employee might already be working in a client’s home. What happens next depends on what the background check finds, Newton says.
The state, for instance, has compiled a list of several crimes that would ban without exception a candidate from working in home health. These crimes include criminal homicide and kidnapping. (For a list of these crimes, see Outreach’s Statement of Employability, inserted in this issue.)
What to do about employees with a conviction not found on the state crimes list is left up to the agencies, Newton says. Outreach leaves the responsibility to each administrator and has set up guidelines to help the administrator work through those issues and make a decision. The administrator, for example, might ask for a reference letter from an employer or a minister, or proof that an individual has gone through a rehabilitation program.
Sometimes the decision comes down to the option of client choice. If a problem is found on the background check and the problem is not grounds for immediate termination, Outreach informs the client that circumstances have arisen that would require the employee to be fired. By law, however, the agency cannot breach the employee’s confidentiality and tell the client about the specific offense.
If the client still wants to remain under the employee’s care, Outreach has a form that the client, attendant, and supervisor sign stating the client was told of a problem but chose to continue the care.
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