Hiring Ex-Criminals for Healthcare

Hospitals account for one in nine jobs in the U.S. and it is expected that this job growth will continue to increase as the aging population increases.

However, due to a shortage of workers who are willing to take hard-to-fill jobs in healthcare, healthcare organisations are hiring people with criminal backgrounds to fill these roles.

An article from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Stateline reports that even a credible healthcare institution like Johns Hopkins doesn't run background checks on potential hires until a conditional job offer is made. In case an issue is discovered during the background check, a member of their HR department reviews it.

Michele Sedney, the system's senior director for recruitment defends this practice and points out that everyone has a past and if we start excluding everyone for their backgrounds, we will never have enough staff for the hospital.

She also highlights the fact that during her four years with Johns Hopkins, there have been no incidents of drug diversion, theft or other crimes related to a staff member with a prior record. In fact, research suggests that employees who are ex-offenders tend to stay in their jobs longer and are less likely to be fired as compared to those who do not have any background issues.

However, there are still concerns about possible blow-back which some states do take seriously. A Colorado bill for e.g. requires healthcare professions to take fingerprint-based background checks and a law in Indiana expanded background checks for all home health job applicants. There is also a risk of negligent hiring that healthcare providers could face in case of some unfortunate incident.

Source: Fierce Healthcare
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