Hepatitis Cases Spur Safety Measures

Kristen Diane Parker, a surgical technician, cruised for empty operating rooms at the Denver hospital where she worked. Parker would slip into the rooms and steal syringes of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, replacing them with syringes she had filled with a saline solution. Parker, who has hepatitis C, allegedly had used those decoy syringes - the source of transmission, authorities believe - on at least 23 Coloradans now infected with the liver-damaging disease, according to her confession to investigators.

Lawmaker Says State Needs Background Checks For Nurses

A 7NEWS investigation has found a nurse accused of stealing medications from a Denver hospital lied on her nursing license application, and now a state lawmaker says the law should be changed.

HealthcareSource Extends Leadership in Healthcare Talent Management, Growing Over 40% in First-Half of 2009
In the second quarter, HealthcareSource launched a unique partner program for background screening vendors. This program provides value to clients by offering vendor integration without incurring additional fees.

Failure To Conduct Adequate Pre-Employment Criminal Background Search Costs Assisted Living Facilty $750,000
A jury awarded $750,000 to a disabled man who was a resident at Cote De Neige Home for Adults after he was sexually assaulted by a worker at the facility. The lawsuit was brought against the assisted living facility for their failure to conduct an adequate pre-hiring background search before hiring a certified nursing assistant.

Nurse fired for allegedly stealing drugs had been fired before

DENVER - A nurse fired from St. Anthony Central Hospital and arrested for stealing pain medication, was previously fired from Swedish Medical Center. A spokeswoman for Swedish says Jillian Fischer was fired January 28, 2008 for misconduct and was not eligible to be rehired at the hospital. She was suspended on January 3, 2008. > read more

Bush signs law for national sex offender registry - President George W. Bush on Thursday signed legislation that will establish a national sex offender registry and try to make it harder for sexual predators to reach children on the Internet. Read more

More elderly residents fall victim to caregivers - The case of a former home health care worker sentenced to prison for theft last week represents a trend in which elderly residents are falling prey to trusted caregivers, prosecutors said. Read more

1,000 felons live in Illinois nursing homes - Background checks required by a new state law have found 1,000 convicted felons—including 60 sex offenders—living at Illinois nursing homes. Read more

Bill to track sex offenders in care homes - The Suffolk (New York) Legislature is expected to adopt a bill that will require nursing home operators to determine whether their employees, residents, volunteers and student interns are listed on the state's sex offender registry. Read more

Nursing home worker checks can be lacking - Employee screenings get renewed attention after the case of a woman sentenced to jail for stealing elderly patients’ morphine. Read more

Melamedia Seminar Focuses on Vetting Prospective Healthcare Employees to Increase Data Protection
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - April 18, 2006 - Healthcare experts agree that the biggest threat to patient privacy and data security is an organization's workforce. While, healthcare entities have substantial discretion, they also have little regulatory guidance or certainty in developing effective programs to determine that prospective employees will adequately protect protected health information.

The HIPAA security rule, for example, requires healthcare organizations to develop reasonable security and training measures, but says little about hiring practices.

States, however, have been active in this area. For example, Michigan requires criminal background checks for workers in long-term care and nursing home facilities.

To help healthcare organizations develop standards for hiring workers, Melamedia's Health Information Privacy/Security Alert is sponsoring a 90-minute audio seminar on May 24:

Protecting Patient Data at the Front Door: Vetting Prospective Employees for HIPAA and Other Data Protection Laws

Participants will be briefed on:
-- Why the importance of vetting prospective employees goes beyond HIPAA;
-- Types of questions that should be included in employment applications;
-- The need to include Privacy and Security Officers in employment decisions;
-- The usefulness of different background checks that organizations may use in evaluating prospects;
-- How state and federal laws limit what healthcare employers can ask;
-- The possible need for new Business Associate contracts provisions; and more.

THE FACULTY:

John Parmigiani, President of John C. Parmigiani & Associates, LLC. The former Director of Enterprise Standards for CMS, John was the chairman of the government-wide HIPAA Administrative Simplification Security and Electronic Signature Standards Implementation Team that created the Security Rule.

Christopher Berner, Esq. Labor and Employment Counsel for Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, which has more than 12,000 physicians and associates.

Barry J. Nadell, President of InfoLink Screening Services, a national provider of employment background checks. Barry is on the board of directors of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. He assisted the California Legislature in amending legislation affecting how employers can protect consumers from identity theft while protecting themselves when requesting pre-employment background
checks.

Who Should Attend:
-- HIPAA Privacy & Security Officers
-- HR Professionals
-- Healthcare search firms
-- Healthcare Executives
-- Risk Managers
-- Business Associates
-- Healthcare Providers
-- Researchers
-- Health Plans
-- Clearinghouses
-- Healthcare Lawyers and Consultants

Register online at http://www.melamedia.com
(c) 2006 Business Wire. All Rights Reserved.

Senate OKs bill on ex-cons in nursing homes - A bill that "sharpens the teeth" of recent legislation to protect nursing home residents from ex-cons is headed for Gov. Blagojevich's desk after unanimously passing the state Senate on Monday. The proposed law resolves many of the sticking points that surfaced after last year's passage of the Vulnerable Adults Protection Act. It calls for nursing homes to pay for criminal background checks on all adult residents. The state Health Department would analyze the results and tell each facility what, if any, safeguards need to be put in place to protect other residents. The bill also requires registered sex offenders to be segregated in their own bedrooms. Read more