Healthcare workers handle confidential patient information, so a background check is essential for this industry. However, a long hiring process can discourage candidates and cause them to leave the company for another job opportunity. A streamlined hiring process will help you hire better employees faster. This includes knockout questions, standardized interviews, and thorough online screening and reference checks.

Saves You Time

Few things impact a hiring manager or recruiter’s job more than spending a lot of time finding and filling positions. This is especially true for small-to-medium businesses that only have many resources and hours to devote to the hiring process. With healthcare, a hiccup in the hiring process can have major consequences for patients and employers alike.

A streamlined hiring process is so important for any healthcare organization. Whether you’re looking for a healthcare worker to work at a hospital, clinic or private physician office, it’s vital that you fully vet all your candidates to ensure they will be a thriving member of your team who is devoted to your patients.

Hiring a healthcare worker requires high skill, experience and judgment. Additionally, medical professionals are entrusted with patient information that must be kept confidential to comply with HIPAA requirements. Background checks can help mitigate this risk by ensuring that your healthcare workers have been properly vetted and are qualified for their roles before they start working.

Streamlining your hiring process can save you both time and money. Instead of wasting time searching for and interviewing candidates that aren’t right for your company, you can use technology to pre-screen applicants and get the ball rolling quickly.

Saves You Money

The medical field is a career that requires a lot of trust. If a new hire fails a background check or is found to have a criminal record, they can end up costing the company money and potentially risking patient safety.

The right healthcare background checks can help you avoid hiring a candidate with a history of violent crimes, theft, fraud, elder abuse, or drug offenses. They can also ensure that candidates have the education and employment verification they claim. A thorough online screening and streamlined interviews can save you time and money by ensuring that only the best candidates move forward.

Using clear and consistent interview questions helps you to compare candidates and avoid personal biases. At the same time, standardized interviewing techniques can cut down on the time it takes to conduct a round of interviews. Adding an automated reference-checking tool to your recruitment process can also streamline this step, so you don’t have to call references and ask them the same questions repeatedly.

In addition, a federal exclusion search can save you money by allowing you to see whether an applicant has been excluded from participating in government healthcare programs like Medicare. This can prevent you from hiring a worker who would otherwise be barred from receiving these funds, exposing your company to legal action.

Saves You Stress

It’s no secret that hiring is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. Between weeding through countless resumes, scheduling interviews and meetings, and negotiating salaries, the entire process can be overwhelming for all parties involved. Streamlining your hiring process is a great way to minimize the time and energy required to hire new employees.

It will also help save you and your team from the stress and frustration of a lengthy, error-prone, and confusing hiring process. When it comes to hiring healthcare professionals, there are a lot of moving parts. From vetting applicants to maintaining compliance with federal, state and local regulations and laws, conducting background checks is crucial to the healthcare industry hiring process.

The best way to mitigate risk and ensure that your patients are protected is by ensuring you have the most qualified workforce possible. That means vetting every candidate to include criminal history, driving records, professional licenses and education verification. It also means conducting various checks specific to the role, such as credit history and drug screening.

By reducing the number of interviews and eliminating unnecessary steps, you can reduce the time it takes to conduct a background check. However, you must be careful not to destroy any statements necessary to protect your patients and employees. For example, a driver’s record check wouldn’t make sense for every healthcare worker, but it would be important for ambulance drivers.

Saves You From Mistakes

Streamlining your hiring process can save you from mistakes that can be costly and dangerous. While it may seem overkill to run a comprehensive background check on every candidate, it’s the best way to ensure you’re not hiring a pharmacy driver with a DUI, a bookkeeper with a history of fraud or an ER nurse with a violent past. Many healthcare companies must comply with complex federal, state and local regulations when hiring employees.

It is not uncommon for states to pass new laws affecting background checks, including Ban the Box, marijuana legalization or rules banning interview questions. Unless you have a process for keeping track of these changes, your background check program can quickly fall out of compliance. It is also not uncommon for candidates to exaggerate their education or work experience. It’s estimated that 85% of job applicants lie on their resumes.

A thorough background check can help you verify candidates’ identities, perform alias searches and conduct national and state criminal record checks. Taking too long to fill an open role can result in losing fast-moving candidates. It can also cost you more to recruit, hire and train a replacement. A streamlined hiring process will give you the data and confidence to make better decisions so you can attract and retain top talent.