VentMedic Posted October 24, 2008 Posted October 24, 2008 Let me clarify that: Gotta love California's license oversight or lack of if you have something to hide. This is for those who believe the press just picks on EMS especially in California. At least the nursing board jumped into action at the first break of scandal but their lack of action for the past 2 decades is inexcusable. The EMS board is also still trying to deal with its own ineffective licensing process with many more examples of EMT(P)s behaving badly that could fall out of the tree with a good shake. We also have many other states that have lax oversight to protect against criminals infiltrating or remaining in their system. Many of us licensed in the early years may never have had to submit finger prints. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics...0,2084628.story California nursing board will require fingerprints from all licensees Board votes to expand oversight after a Times investigation found dozens of nurses were allowed to keep and renew their licenses after being convicted of crimes. By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber October 24, 2008 The California Board of Registered Nursing unanimously approved emergency regulations Thursday requiring all of its licensees to submit fingerprints, allowing law enforcement agencies to flag the nursing board any time a nurse is arrested. The move comes after a Times story earlier this month revealed that dozens of convicted criminals had kept their licenses for years. The new rule will have the greatest effect on about 146,000 nurses who were licensed before 1990, when the board began requiring new applicants to provide fingerprints. Assuming that the rules are approved by the state's Office of Administrative Law, nurses who have not been fingerprinted will have to do so when they renew their licenses, beginning in March. At Thursday's meeting, the board's executive officer disclosed that her agency would add eight new positions to its enforcement program to act on new conviction information received from renewing nurses or from arrest notifications sent by the state Department of Justice or the FBI. A joint investigation by The Times and ProPublica, an investigative reporting newsroom, found more than 115 cases since 2002 in which the nursing board failed to act against nurses' licenses until they had racked up three or more convictions. In 24 cases, nurses had at least five convictions. The investigation also found cases in which the board had never acted against nurses convicted of sex offenses and Medicare fraud. At least one nurse is currently in prison; another was able to renew his license from there for years after being convicted of attempted murder. After the article ran, the nursing board also said that, effective immediately, it would ask all nurses renewing their licenses if they had been convicted of crimes since their last renewal. Carrie Lopez, director of the state Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the nursing board and more than 30 other professional licensing agencies, praised the board's vote Thursday. "While the board was an early proponent of fingerprinting new license applicants, there has been a population of licensees that have been allowed to operate under the board's radar," she said in a statement. "The people of California expect much more from our regulatory entities." Criminal past is no bar to nursing in California Times investigation finds the state nurse licensing board allowed sex offenders, drug users and convicts to retain and renew their permits.By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Special to The Times October 5, 2008 Dozens of registered nurses convicted of crimes, including sex offenses and attempted murder, have remained fully licensed to practice in California for years before the state nursing board acted against them, a Times investigation found. The newspaper, in a joint effort with the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica, found more than 115 recent cases in which the state didn't seek to pull or restrict licenses until nurses racked up three or more criminal convictions. Twenty-four nurses had at least five. In some cases, nurses with felony records continue to have spotless licenses -- even while serving time behind bars. Nurse Haydee Parungao sits in a federal prison in Danbury, Conn., serving a nearly five-year sentence after admitting in 2006 that she bilked Medicare out of more than $3 million. In her guilty plea, Parungao confessed to billing for hundreds of visits to Southern California patients that she never made, charging for visits while she was out of the country and while she was gambling at Southern California casinos. Yet according to the state of California, she is a nurse in good standing, free to work in any hospital or medical clinic. Reporters reviewed stacks of nursing board files and court pleadings, consulted online databases and newspaper clippings and conducted interviews with nurses and experts in several states. The investigation included an analysis of all accusations filed and disciplinary actions taken by the board since 2002 -- more than 2,000 in all. The offenses included misdemeanors and felonies ranging from petty theft and disorderly conduct to assault, embezzlement and bail jumping. Among the cases in which the board acted belatedly or not at all: * An Orange County man continued to renew his nursing license for years even after he was imprisoned for attempted murder. * A Redding nurse was convicted 14 separate times from 1996 -- a year after she was licensed -- through 2006 on charges including several instances of driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and drug possession. * A San Pedro man amassed convictions for receiving stolen property, as well as possession of cocaine and burglary tools, before the board placed him on probation. He subsequently was arrested two more times, for possessing cocaine and a pipe to smoke it. In response, the board extended his probation. * A Calimesa nurse has a clean record despite a felony conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child. "I'm completely blown away," said Julianne D'Angelo Fellmeth, administrative director of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego and an expert on professional licensing boards in California. "Nurses are rendering care to sick people, to vulnerable people. . . . This is a fundamental failure on the part of this board." Escaping scrutiny California has the largest number of registered nurses in the nation. Hospitals and clinics rely on the website of the California Board of Registered Nursing, in part, when checking out job applicants because all accusations and disciplinary actions are posted there for public review. MUCH MORE AT: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics...0,7577034.story
Just Plain Ruff Posted October 24, 2008 Posted October 24, 2008 again, when you have a bunch of bureaucrats running something then this is what happens. but then again, we are talking about california here.
JPINFV Posted October 24, 2008 Posted October 24, 2008 Yeaaaa. My home county made the news... oh, wait, what?
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