Ex Cons Caring for our Elderly in Florida

St. Petersburg, FLAn emerging issue tied to the topic of nursing home abuse and elder care neglect by workers at nursing homes, relates to the personal backgrounds of individuals who some might argue have no business working at an elder care facility.

In a damning expose appearing in the Orlando Sentinel yesterday, it was reported that more than 3500 individuals with criminal records have been allowed to work with the elderly through exemptions granted by the State of Florida over the past twenty years.

Even worse, hundreds of workers with criminal records did not go through the exemption application process. It was alleged that in those cases employers never bothered to check into the background of prospective hires.

There are several examples of this.

During a routine inspection of a nursing care facility last year, it was found that an employee who had been on the job for a full three years had been convicted in 1983 on a charge of vehicular homicide. The worker should not have been working at the facility without applying for an exemption from the State. There is no record of her ever applying for one.

The Sentinel reported that of 100,000 screened through the Agency for Health Care Administration 3 percent of applicants were rejected due to a criminal history for murder, exploiting the elderly and elder neglect.

This week a new basket of crimes will be added to the list. Those crimes include burglary, fraud and forgery.

Nursing Home Residents at Risk for Nursing Home Injury

Maria Blanco, according to the Sentinel, was employed as a home health worker in the St. Petersburg area in spite of nearly a dozen charges involving theft and fraud spanning a decade. Despite being described as an "exceptional caregiver" by her employer, Blanco was convicted of stealing nearly $5,000 from an 86-year-old man in her care.

In Palm Beach, a woman with pending forgery charges secured a job at a nursling home facility. It wasn't long before she assaulted a resident, striking her hard across the face.

In that case, the nursing home conducted a background check on the prospective employee that failed to reveal the forgery charge. That, however appears to be rare. In more than a few cases facilities either don't check at all, or only start the exemption process after the employee has already been hired.

It represents a huge disservice to the families of elderly patients and a safety risk to the residents themselves. Talk about a recipe for nursing home personal injury.