Sex offenders in LTC

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Specializes in LTC, Dementia, Acute care.

Anyone in WA and OR probually saw the articles few weeks ago about licenced CNAs convicted as sex offenders in OR moving to WA and having there licence's re-issued. I unfortinatly hired one of these **** :devil: . Lucky for us, my administrator saw the person's photo in the paper and we escorted him out of the building. The freaky thing is that his background check had come back without a record!!!!!! In our investigation we found that he had an alias, had lied about his address, had a fake SS# and fake drivers licence. The ONLY red flag we got was when we decided to run his alias name against the CNA database, which we never do since we don't hire CNAs. The state healthcare body and the state legal offices don't communicate between eachother.

I'm sure you can see how freaky this is. I also have a lot of guilt for being the one who hired him. Even though he had an excellet reference (which we checked all 3), had a freindly and charasmatic peronality and the residents loved him. The only red flag I had about him was a n incident I witnessed with the trading between shifts where he approahed a young pretty Caregiver in, for lake of a better explaination, a "Mac Daddy" personality (put his arm around her shoulders, swaggered, and said "Hey Girl" to her). Which just raised the hairs on my neck. (We found later that his sex crime was againat a younger patient at a hopsital.) After that I had started to phase him out of working with this caregiver and I had reduced him to 1/2 time since he was having other problems with his job.

Not sure why I'm venting, rather then that I have to. LOL, I REALLY wanted him to cause a seene when we escorted him out, I was itching to thump him a bit. Very un-nursey caring I know, but I can't stand anyone that would take advantage of a sick person or a young person.

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The freaky thing is that his background check had come back without a record!!!!!! In our investigation we found that he had an alias, had lied about his address, had a fake SS# and fake drivers licence.

I'm in SW Washington.

I'd suggest adding a Choice Point check and possibly a credit report in addition to the standard WSP background check.

In the past I've caught problems including recently suspended/revoked (nursing) licenses in states the applicant hadn't listed as having lived or worked in on either their application or background check forms.

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I'm in SW Washington.

I'd suggest adding a Choice Point check and possibly a credit report in addition to the standard WSP background check.

In the past I've caught problems including recently suspended/revoked (nursing) licenses in states the applicant hadn't listed as having lived or worked in on either their application or background check forms.

I have a question about this... I work w/ a nurse that is suspended in another state. I'm not sure anyone knows it or not. Is it okay to be working in one state if your license has been suspended in another one? The suspending state is the one that gave endorsement to the state she is working in. I haven't told anyone what I know because I'm not sure of the rules. Ideas???

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This sort of thing scares me to death.

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Specializes in LTC, Dementia, Acute care.

Well the reson this article made the front page is the the State of Oregon didn't take away the offender's CNA licence for over a year. (well according to the media, and we all know how reliable THAT is) In which time he was able to secure a new CNA licence in Washington. About 1-2 years after the conviction of 2nd degree rape in Oregon, he was discovered in Washington. Washington DID not take away his licence for nearly 2 years!!! He supposedly fled to Sri Lanka, so he was deemed not to be a threat. In actuallity he got a fake SS#, Drivers licence and started working as a NA, which dosn't require the same backround check as a CNA.

At last I heard they where unable to catch him.

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Specializes in LTC, Dementia, Acute care.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/licensetoharm/
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Have you ever considered using a fingerprinting system? Cost may be a factor, though I suspect. I work for a veteran's hospital and they fingerprint each employee. I have no problem with this as I have nothing to hide. Anyone who had something to hide would think twice about applying for a job that used this method of background checking.

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I have a question about this... I work w/ a nurse that is suspended in another state. I'm not sure anyone knows it or not. Is it okay to be working in one state if your license has been suspended in another one? The suspending state is the one that gave endorsement to the state she is working in. I haven't told anyone what I know because I'm not sure of the rules. Ideas???

Its going to depend on the states involved and what their rules are.

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