Care facility’s negligent hiring puts residents at risk

A Chippewa Falls, Wis., mental health care facility was discovered to have a convicted sex offender in its employ, five months after the man had begun working at the facility as an environmental services coordinator. Lake Hallie Memory Care had hired the offender in April 2013 before a criminal background check had returned results. His results did not come back until September 2013, when he was fired due to his previous conviction. Due to negligent hiring practices, as well as other Wisconsin Department of Health Services violations, the facility has been banned from bringing in any new patients until they’ve addressed the issues. In addition to finding two other employees that had not passed background checks, state inspectors discovered two uniform licensing violations and 26 violations of facility rules as required by the state department, including violating residents’ right to privacy and not properly training employees. Lake Hallie Memory Care was fined more than $30,000 for these violations. Investing time and money in background checks for potential employees — as well as giving the proper attention and care to current workers — can help prevent incidents like this one from happening to your business. Here are some ways that you can avoid negligent hiring and retention in the future. Conduct background checks. This is especially important when you’re hiring candidates who will be working with children and the elderly, or anyone who will be in a caretaker position. A criminal history check can prevent negligent hiring by making sure that caregivers do not have felony records, or multiple arrests for similar charges (even if no conviction was reached). Make sure you get the results before making hiring decisions. In many cases, negligent hiring — and subsequent fines and delays — could have been avoided by simply waiting until background checks had been completed before making any hiring decisions. Just because a candidate looks great on paper doesn’t mean they’re above suspicion. Remember, people still do commit resume fraud and will avoid disclosing criminal convictions. Invest in your employees. Once you’ve made a hiring decision, have your HR department provide employees with the training necessary to succeed at their jobs. Investing time into your employees’ training and their job requirements may cost you a little in the short run, but can end up saving you big bucks over time. Lack of training can be just as harmful to your business as negligent hiring. Contact Mind Your Business for more information about caregiver background checks. photo credit: Rosie O’Beirne via photopin cc  ]]>