Do Database Deficiencies Spell Danger for Residents?

Years ago, as a licensed nursing home administrator, I was 100% responsible under regulation for everything my staff did in my facility 24/7. I accepted this responsibility. I took it seriously, making certain that background checks and extensive pre-hire screenings were carried out on all applicants. These days, facilities with Corporate Integrity Agreements are required to screen all new hires and all employees annually against Federal Exclusion lists. And many long-term care companies are now going above and beyond: screening all employees annually as part of their routine compliance activities, even though they are not required to do so.


Despite the best of intentions, even annual screenings of employees can be woefully inadequate when it comes to protecting vulnerable populations against dangerous caregivers.

Sadly McKnights Long-Term Care News reports that the long-awaited national database of caregivers to be unveiled March 1 is incomplete .

According to the Los Angeles Times, 22 years have elapsed since Congress ordered the national database deployed and next week's release date debuts a deficient database. Their investigations showed that many states submitted reports only occasionally, and some states submitted incomplete information on registered nurses. States were especially deficient in reporting more recent disciplinary actions taken against problem workers. Apparently some of the missing cases were people who had done harm to residents, “a nurse, for instance, whose license was pulled after she injected a patient with painkillers in a drugstore parking lot and improperly prescribed methadone to an addict who later died of an overdose.”

With the burden of responsibility resting squarely on the shoulders of individual long-term care leaders, what does it take to get complete and accurate information from those who hold us accountable for resident safety?

The industry as a whole has never been more serious about preventing resident abuse and carefully screening job applicants in the interest of protecting residents. To wait 22 years and then have the database be incomplete and inaccurate is an insult to the tremendous efforts being made by long-term care leaders. Certainly it is in the public interest to get this right.