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Clinical Placement Background Checks are Vital to Hiring Success at Cleveland Clinic Health System
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If the national unemployment rate is indicative of the country’s economic climate, then the healthcare industry must have missed a memo somewhere along the line. While unemployment continues to inch steadily upward, hospitals nationwide are having a diffi cult time fi nding people to fill a growing number of open positions. Critical shortages in such areas as nursing, pharmacy and radiology have forced hospitals to go on the offensive to attract qualifi ed employees.
Because of the intense demand for good employees, the need to conduct quick and accurate clinical placement background checks on job candidates can make the difference between hiring a qualified individual and losing that candidate to the competition virtually overnight.
Charla Henningsen of the Cleveland Clinic Health System, Eastern Region, is well aware of the need for qualifi ed candidates and the importance of a rapid hiring process. As Director of Recruitment Services for the Eastern Region, which covers four acute care hospitals (Euclid, Hillcrest, Huron, and South Pointe) and employs more than 5,000 individuals, Henningsen keeps watch over an immense candidate pool that supplied more than 1,000 external hires in 2002.
“In healthcare recruitment the demand far exceeds the current supply,” comments Henningsen. “Therefore, quick turnaround in the interviewing and hiring phase is absolutely essential.”
Henningsen is quick to point out that rapidly filling an open position takes a back seat to ensuring that the candidate meets the strict standards set forth by the Eastern Region Hospitals. “The mission statement focuses on the patient first,” she stresses, “so every individual we hire is judged by how well we perceive his or her ability to interact with patients.” The goal, then, becomes three-fold: Hire the best, don’t compromise on quality, and complete the screening process quickly.
From Candidate to Employee, “Stat”
To strengthen her office’s hiring efforts, Henningsen retained Corporate Screening Services to conduct clinical placement background checks on every final external candidate. Corporate Screening responded by taking a consultative approach and developing a highly customized criminal background search operation that, in effect, became the research and investigative arm of the department’s well established screening program.
This has added an extra level of thoroughness to Henningsen’s medical background checks, ensuring reliability in such areas as fingerprint records, providing additional research support when needed and streamlining the flow of the screening operation.
And to rev up the department’s hiring process, Corporate Screening introduced CSS EASE, an automated, online reporting system that permits users to order investigations, retrieve reports and communicate with Corporate Screening staff any time at the touch of a button.
“CSS EASE works great for us,” reports Henningsen. “We submit regular requests and receive an immediate reply that the work is in process. We don’t have to bother with phone calls or wait for the mail to arrive. Everything is online and available.”
And while one might get the impression that an extra level of criminal background research would inhibit the operation, Henningsen reports that an investigation for a candidate now averages a mere 1.6 days, which enables her staff to hire faster and with more confidence.
Healthy Relationship
Henningsen credits this working partnership with Corporate Screening for bolstering the department’s ability to hire the best candidates and fill vital positions for the Eastern Region hospitals.
“Our relationship with Corporate Screening is very positive,” she comments. “Their response is immediate, even when we have special needs or if additional research is required. We’ve always been impressed with Corporate Screening’s array of services and have absolute confi dence that our reports will be complete, accurate and, best of all, timely.”
And in an industry that can’t fill positions fast enough, ensuring rapid turnaround with lightning speed background checks seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered.
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