In an effort to make the workplace safer for both clients and other employees a large portion of businesses now conduct background checks on applicants before hiring them. This is particular important for employers in the healthcare industry. Since many of the individuals employees come in contact with daily are considering vulnerable members of society, guaranteeing their safety is extremely important. Despite these efforts, problems still occur causing those with criminal pasts to slip past background checks.
Background checks aren’t infallible. Since these investigations are run by either people or computers, there is a chance that something will be missed. This can have serious ramifications.
One example of this happened very recently. Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, an East Lost Angeles county health clinic, discovered that one of the employees they had hired through Mediscan Staffing Services, Grainer Beasley, had a criminal history that had gone unnoticed during a background check investigation. Beasley, an x-ray technologist and convicted rapist, had been working for the clinic for approximately a month when this was discovered. Interestingly enough, he had been fired last year by county officials from a similar position in August of last year due to his past.
According to Mediscan president Val Serebryany, Beasley’s criminal record was not reported when a background check was conducted on him. She also said that he had not answered several of the questions on his application honestly.
“Mediscan conduct a thorough screening of all applicants, which includes a seven-year criminal and sex offender check, fraud/OIG check, license, education and employment screenings, in addition to checks on the national terrorist database,” said Serebryany in a statement to The Times. “In Mr. Beasley’s case, all required checks came back clear.”
She went on to say that all policies and procedures required by the firm’s contract with the county were followed in regards to Beasley’s employment.
The reason that his conviction was likely not found during the background checks was the fact that his first name was incorrectly spelled in some of the court records pertaining to the case, according to The Times.
Beasley, who used to be a Los Angeles police officer, was convicted of rapping two women in 1992 while off duty. In 1994 he was paroled. Four years later he was hired by County-USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights as an X-ray Technologist. At this time he disclosed his convictions on his application.
The attorney who is representing Beasley in his appeal for being fired from the county job did not comment, although he has, in the past, stated that he feels his client was unfairly targeted.
This does go to show that simple things, such as misspelled names or, as in other cases, having the same name as someone else can cause a background check to yield incorrect results. Despite this, these occurrences tend to be rare when compared to the number of individuals whose correct information is returned.