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Bill would require background checks of prospective
nursing home employees
Stamford
Advocate, May
28, 2003
HARTFORD,
Conn. - Applicants for nursing home jobs would be required to pay a fee
for a check of their criminal backgrounds under a bill approved Tuesday by
a legislative committee.
The Appropriations Committee shifted the cost of the background checks,
estimated at more than $200,000 next year and nearly $260,000 in 2005,
from a state agency to job applicants after several committee members
complained about the proposed expense.
Many committee members refused to spend more money because of the state's
estimated $1 billion budget deficit in the fiscal year beginning June 1.
"It's another expense we have not budgeted for," Sen. Robert
Genuario, R-Norwalk, said of the original bill's cost to the state.
The Appropriations Committee approved the revised bill on a voice vote,
said Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury. The proposal now heads to the
Senate.
The previous version would have required the state Department of Public
Health to hire staff and purchase equipment to check the backgrounds of an
estimated 8,600 applicants a year.
The revised bill would require job applicants to pay fees that would be
given to the Public Safety Department, which would perform the background
checks. The amount of the fee was not available Tuesday.
State law bars employees with felony records from working at nursing
homes. But legislators want to help nursing homes screen out applicants
who have criminal records.
The bill would also apply to employees who have been convicted of
nonviolent crimes such as theft, said Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia.
"Sometimes, there's a lot of stealing in nursing homes," she
said. "I don't know if we've had actual reports of abuse. But we
don't want to get there. You absolutely have to know."
In recent years, residents or former residents have been accused of
assaulting nursing home residents.
Several lawmakers balked at the part of the bill that would ban all
prospective employees with a criminal record from ever working in a
nursing home.
Rep. Robert Farr, R-West Hartford, said he was concerned that nursing
homes would "reject a lot of people who are trying to rehabilitate
themselves."
Prague said the legislation would give nursing homes the ability to
differentiate among applicants who were found guilty of varying offenses.
"If someone was convicted of abuse of the elderly or sexual assault,
that would bear more weight than other crimes," she said.
Rep. Lydia Martinez, D-Bridgeport, said the legislation would
"probably not" apply to kitchen workers, but would more likely
help screen out employees who care for patients.
The law would require nursing homes to consider the age of an applicant at
the time of conviction, circumstances surrounding the crime, the
relationship between the crime and the applicant's job duties and the
applicant's criminal and correction record since the crime.
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