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Employment Screening Resources (ESR) Physician and Health Care Provider
Background Screening

EMPLOYMENT SCREENING RESOURCES
415-898-0044 / 888-999-4474

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is pleased to offer background screening of Physician and health care providers  to physician offices, hospitals, clinics and managed care groups. ESR specializes in background screening of health care providers.  ESR works with health care providers and processional credentialing  organizations in providing the vital background screening information that a health care organization needs. 

Many organizations make the mistake of either not conducting any background or credentials research, or just limiting the due diligence to medical credentials.  Although   credentialing is a critical part of the process, a failure to also conduct a   background check for information such as criminal  records, leaves a health care organization extremely vulnerable to lawsuits and allegations of negligence.  A health care risk management program  requires  both credentialing and background screening..  

Why should a medical  organization conduct  both credentialing and a background search?

Just because a medical position is involved does not mean that there is a reduced need for due diligence

The Credentialing and screening of physicians is critical for any medical organization. In fact, it can literally be a matter of life and death. For medical organizations, the financial risks and liability for the negligent hiring for a doctor's position can be devastating. Each year, about 2,000 doctors nationwide are the subject of state medical board disciplinary actions on such grounds as gross negligence, incompetence, sexual abuse, moral unfitness, fraud, professional misconduct, practicing while impaired or failure to disclose a prior state disciplinary action. In addition, fraudulent claims concerning qualifications and licenses are not uncommon.

Doctors, as individuals are no more immune from problems and difficulties then any other professional group. In addition, just because someone presents himself or herself as a doctor by no means ensures they are currently licensed, or ever have been licensed. There is a wide spread problem of doctors continuing to practice, even though they have lost their license or have been charged with criminal acts;

Another problem is individuals who pose as doctors who are not licensed. This can happen with individuals who failed to complete medical school, or have foreign training or attended an off-shore school, but who have not obtained the required medical license;

Contrary to popular belief, the system for regulating, licensing and disciplining doctors in the United States is considered largely inadequate. There is no one place where a medical organization can turn to get definitive information as to a doctor's background and current status. Medical boards in each state handle discipline, and the procedures are not uniform. Many states lack the staff or funding to seriously pursue complaints. Investigations can drag on for years, during which time the doctor can continue to practice and the public may not know a complaint is pending. In some states, where a physician voluntarily surrenders his or her license, that "plea bargain" is not reported to the Federation of Medical Boards (the national organization for state medical boards), and the doctor is able to relocate to another state and establish a new practice. Locating malpractice actions is also limited. Although some medical providers have access to the United States Department of Health and Human Service National Practitioner Databank, even that system is not foolproof.

The bottom line is that to adequately screen a physician candidate, a number of different and sometimes overlapping approaches are needed to ensure a reasonable comprehensive inquiry and to prevent any important information from "falling through the cracks."

What Type of Screening is Recommended?

To adequately screen for physician job candidates, a medical organization should conduct two levels of due diligence. First, there is a need to confirm medical credentials. Secondly, there is a need for a general due diligence background check applicable to any professional being considered for a critical position. Third, an organization may wish to obtain an in-depth background, which may also include verified professional references, verification of clinical activity for the past 6-12 months, and lifetime healthcare related employment, and malpractice insurance and ten year history. 

Also see:

• Special Services for Hospitals and Health Care--see Hire Safe Health Care--
• See our Special Report on Risk Management and Pre-employment Screening for Hospitals and Health Care Providers.
• "Outsourced Pre-employment Screening," a special Report for hospitals and health care providers by Les Rosen, president of ESR.  This is a report on how hospitals and health care facilitates outsource this important task, published at  www.medcareers.com ,   the Internet's most comprehensive and easy-to-use site devoted exclusively to providing career and staffing solutions for healthcare professionals.
• Hiring Safe Health Care providers (Adobe Acrobat format)
  Safe Hiring and Risk Management -from the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR) Fall, 2000 newsletter-article by  Calvin Bruce, C.P.C and Les Rosen, President of ESR, on Physician Recruitment

Additional information:  Please note that the credentials report provided by ESR may not be used in a formal "credentialing process."  This can be defined as "the process of granting authorization by the user to provide specific patient care and treatment services, within defined limits, based on confirmation through primary source verification data of an individual's license, education, training, experience, competence, health status and judgement."  For credentials for hospitals or health care providers, ESR recommends the services of professional credential organizations that can gather such information directly from primary sources.