Leticia | Posted in: If you're new to our site, please consider subscribing to our full RSS feed. Subscribe now, and you will get an offer that's only available to folks who read our feed!
I found a great post on MSSPNexus Blog that explained the need for hospitals to conduct background checks on their attending physicians, a practice I’ve tried to stress.
Though most professionals, and probably more of the general public, would think the need for background checks is anywhere from unnecessary to overly intrusive, the more they’re conducted, the more it appears the practice is quite helpful.
Has the need for instant criminal background checks increased in recent years? Perhaps. Has this had anything to do with 9-11? Probably, but in the case of health care professionals, as with teachers, coaches, priests, tax attorneys and other professionals — the need has been less for reasons relating to the risk that one of them might be planning a mass murder, and more to do with the risk that they might act contrary to the better values of their profession (usually for reasons of personal gain).
Either case makes strengthens the case for employers to do criminal background checks on their employees, for the sake of their professions and even moreso, for the sake of the general public.
Running criminal background checks on physicians (or any other professional) can raise difficult questions… Should events from 5, 10, 15 years ago be considered? What if the charge is not related to their profession? What about issues where the facts may be in dispute? If the matter is deemed serious, does that mean denial of professional memberships and/or privileges, or is some lesser action sufficient?
Difficult issues; and, deliberately closing one’s eyes to available data is a risky option. We will take up this issue in another article, and I will provide an example of how background checks and other questions relating to professional ethics have been handled (and enforced) in the field of public management, my professional area.
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