How do you trust an employee? It’s hard to gauge who a person is based on their resume or what they say in a job interview. For that, you’ll need to conduct a thorough background check.

Trust is an important part of any healthcare worker’s job. There needs to be a relationship of understanding and compassion between the client and the home care provider. But trust is something that needs to be earned and proved, especially when you’re working with vulnerable individuals.

This is why it falls to the employer to do a thorough background check for every employee. Hiring the wrong healthcare worker can put vulnerable people in danger. The potential for abuse is high with healthcare positions; clients may be neglected physically, financially, or emotionally.

You wouldn’t hire a schoolteacher or police officer without first conducting a background check. The same goes for a healthcare worker. Here’s why you need to conduct background checks before hiring a home care provider:

Prevent Abuse

A home healthcare worker provides in-depth care to people in vulnerable positions. The client may have a disability, dementia, or other medical condition. This puts them at a higher risk of being neglected or taken advantage of.

Unfortunately, elder abuse is prevalent throughout the country. When clients are neglected by home healthcare providers, they are at a higher risk of developing depression. They may suffer injuries that could be fatal.

If the client has a physical or mental disability, they may be unable to communicate their concerns to others. The abuse may occur without the family or the employer’s awareness. This means that home care abuse or neglect may be grossly underreported.

What’s more troubling is that these vulnerable individuals are not able to protect themselves. They rely on healthcare workers to fulfill their basic needs.

Neglectful care may or may not be intentional. If the home care provider lacks the proper training, they may fail to ensure that the client’s physical, emotional, and hygienic needs are met.

By conducting a background check on all job applicants, you can verify that they are who they say they are. If you find any criminal incidents on their record, you’ll know that your trust will be better placed elsewhere.

Quality Care Assurance

The quality of your home care services is highly dependent on who you hire. The owner of Right at Home in Winnipeg writes, “To provide high-quality care, you need to employ caretakers who are qualified to offer it.”

It takes training, education, and experience to provide proper home care. A few responsibilities of a caregiver include:

• Assessing the needs and condition of a client each day
• Administering medication at the appropriate dosage and correct time
• Calling for help if there is a medical emergency

Someone who is not trained to perform these duties can potentially harm a client, even if it’s unintentional. As an employer, you have the responsibility to hire healthcare providers who are capable of meeting those needs.

A background check will confirm the identity of the job applicant; you can verify that the claims they make about their experience and training are true.

Background Checks

You want to believe that people are who they say they are. If you’re vetting job applications to fill a healthcare position, you don’t want to suspect that those applicants may be criminals.

In reality, there’s no reason not to seek a background check; there’s nothing personal about it. It’s a smart, safe hiring practice that can protect vulnerable people from being abused.

But one challenge with background checks is finding a reputable service to use for it. By utilizing accredited fingerprinting services, you can identify whether the individual has ever engaged in criminal activity. You can access information like:

• Drug use
• License suspensions
• Felonies
• Employment and education history
• Credit history
• Any history of sexual abuse

Once you’ve received this information, you can rest assured that the person you hire has no ill intentions or criminal record.

Is it wrong to turn down a job applicant based on past mistakes? While wrongdoings can be amended, it’s not worth taking chances with those who are elderly or have physical, mental, or other medical conditions. Someone with a history of abuse is not qualified to become a caretaker.

Protect Your Business

If one of your clients is abused by an employee, it can do more than damage their well-being—it can also damage your business.

The client’s family may decide to press charges against your company. Even after you fire the employee in question, the incident will have a lasting impact on your reputation.

Although background checks bring an additional cost to the hiring process, imagine what you might pay if you were faced with a lawsuit.

Your employees can make or break your business. Their performance will influence your reputation and directly affect the clients that you work with.

In the home healthcare industry, the wrong employee can cause lasting damage to your clients. Protect those in vulnerable situations by performing background checks on every caretaker that you hire.

Author information: Catherine Holland is a writer based in Canada. She writes articles with a focus on law and business for a variety of companies. Some of her favorite pieces can be found on Matt Gould’s website.