Background Check Requirement
On January 1, 2004, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) instituted new regulations for healthcare organizations. These organizations (hospitals, home health agencies, clinics and other types of health agencies) must abide by these regulations in order to gain or continue to hold accreditation status. This status is very important to healthcare organizations to demonstrate to patients and professionals that they meet the highest of standards for patient care.
One of these regulations requires that all persons, employees, volunteers and students, who are involved in patient care activities, must have background checks. This background check will be done at the applicant’s expense after provisional acceptance has been granted. Since students have clinical experiences in a variety of health care agencies during their education, it will not be practical to have a background check done for each agency. That information is collected by each school for all of its students and held in confidence by the school. Only if there is a problem with the results, are the agencies notified. Each such instance is handled on an individual basis.
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The University of Kansas Medical Center