Northwestern University Study Confirms Need for Quality Standards for Senior Home Care

Quality standards for senior home care should be a natural, but as the industry is still very new (more than 30 franchise corporations just opened their doors in the last decade) national standards have not yet been created.  Caregiverlist provides a list of quality standards for senior home care, which will make sure professional care with the necessary training and insurance requirements will be present for senior care in the home.  Now a Northwestern University study confirms these standards should always be present to make sure only quality background checks with supervised care management are assigned to senior care jobs.

While some babysitter and nanny websites have tried to promote senior caregivers, minus the proper training and background checks, Northwestern University's Dr. Lee Lindquist emphasizes professional senior care requires knowledge of the industry and professional training and management.  Dr. Lindquist's research confirmed the need to only hire senior home care agencies who follow professional standards for hiring senior caregivers.

The state of Illinois passed legislation in 2008 to make sure all professionals in senior care only refer to licensed senior home care agencies.  These agencies only hire caregivers who meet the state of Illinois Health Care Worker Background Check requirements which includes fingerprinting.  Consumers should be mindful that doing a proper background check does require training.  Many of the babysitter and nanny websites have repeated babysitter arrests and convicted criminals who have used an alias name on their websites because they do not conduct high quality background checks and do not conduct a social security number and name match.  Licensed senior home care agencies do perform professional background checks.

Steven Wolf, CEO of Pendeo Home Care in Chicago, Illinois, says "The Illinois Health Care Worker Background Check registry creates a standard for quality caregivers to be hired by creating a database of fingerprinted caregivers."  This background check registry can be partnered with a national criminal background check service to confirm there has not been criminal conduct in counties outside of the state of Illinois.

Caregiverlist provides the background check laws in each state to assists seniors, caregivers and senior home care agencies to understand when criminal records beyond just 7 years can be viewed.  Some states allow access to criminal records beyond the 7-year time span allowed by the national law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

"Background checks can be very confusing for both seniors and caregivers," says Caregiverlist CEO Julie Northcutt.  "Many services sell background checks which are only a social security to name match and a check of the national sex offender database.  It is important to understand that many county courthouses nationwide do not submit criminal records to a national computer database but instead require payment of a courthouse entry fee before the criminal records are released."

Caregiver background checks should include reviewing the criminal records for any county where the caregiver has lived, in addition to obtaining personal and professional reference checks.  Reading and understanding background check reports requires training along with having knowledge of which courthouses nationwide require a courthouse fee to be paid prior to supplying the criminal records.

Just as nightclubs may charge an entry fee, these courthouses require all background check reporting companies to pay a fee in order to obtain the background check.  If you have not paid this required fee, you will not receive the criminal court records in those counties.  

Caregiverlist provides the county criminal courthouse record fees for counties nationwide in the U.S.A. and details on what to review when obtaining a caregiver background check.

Courthouse Criminal Record Check Fees in the U.S.A.

Sources: Lee A. Lindquist, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, Journal of American Geriatrics Society