By Gregg Sherrard Blesch
Staff writer
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A new state law requires nursing homes to run criminal background checks before hiring anyone who will have access to residents, their living quarters or their records.
The law, signed Tuesday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was introduced in the Legislature by state Sen. Edward Maloney (D-Chicago) and state Rep. Kevin Joyce (D-Worth).
I think families have a right to know the people who are going to be working with (residents) are professional and have clean backgrounds, Maloney said.
Maloney, along with state Rep. James Brosnahan (D-Evergreen Park), also initiated a law signed last month that requires nursing homes to identify and closely monitor sex offenders and felons if they accept them as residents, prompted by problems at the recently shuttered Emerald Park Healthcare Center in Evergreen Park.
The new rules, effective Jan. 1, will disqualify applicants who have been convicted of certain crimes, such as murder, robbery and forgery from holding most jobs in any kind of long-term care facility. People with such convictions already were prohibited from working in health-care positions.
In addition to expanding the range of job descriptions requiring checks, the new law demands that employers do the checks by fingerprints rather than names.
In a pilot program using a three-year, $2.5 million federal grant, the state will begin running checks through the FBI's national database.
The homes would be notified if an employee later commits a disqualifying crime, which wouldn't register without another background check under the current system.
The underlying factor is people sometimes can't keep their loved ones at home, and there should be a confidence level that I think is not there anymore, Joyce said. This is a small step forward to start building the trust again for these facilities.
Terry Sullivan, executive director of the Illinois Council on Long Term Care, an industry group, said nursing homes supported the legislation.
We would be electronically informed that a new hit showed up on this person's record, Sullivan said. There's greater security all around for everybody.
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Nursing home workers need background check
