State Clearances, How many go through them?

[ed2brute]

In Missouri you have to submit a background check from every state you've lived in for the past 5 years along with your application for EMT licensure.

[Savoy6]

Missouri has been conducting checks for over ten years. We were the first state to be raked over the coals by the media in 1994. EMS is just a reflection of society, but EMS providers are expected to be held to a higher standard.

You are with a patient at their most vulnerable times. Was unpopular, but it has kept some bad folks off the streets. Plus it has cost quite a few folks their license. They do it to themselves. We're not talking parking tickets or bad checks. We are talking felonies against person, drugs, sex offenses, crimes against children, the handicapped.

Of all people, Robert Blake said, "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime".

[Guest]

In Missouri you have to submit a background check from every state you've lived in for the past 5 years along with your application for EMT licensure.

Yes, but that background check is just the basic check.. it's not very extensive, and it doesn't dig very deep. Don't get me wrong, the simpler one makes it easier for me to relicense but I sometimes have to laugh when I think about the quality of providers that we are allowing through. Just my 2 cents though

[emtI4now]

but I sometimes have to laugh when I think about the quality of providers that we are allowing through. Just my 2 cents though

Sometimes I have to cry when I think about it.

[Nate]

Texas doesn't do automatic background checks on medics or nurses for licensure. But if you admit to ANY criminal background on your application, even simple misdemeanors, then they craw up your ass with a microscope and hold up your application sometimes for months.

I had to submit to a background check and so did the rest of my paramedic class before we could get our license.

[Guest]

I had to do a driving back ground check when I volunteered as a driver for my service to check if I had any "flaws" in my driving record... and then when I was taking my EMT-B class...towards the end of it and before we did our NR testing..I had to go through a back ground check. Hehehe and I had a ticket for "jay walking"...But it didn't show up. Damn cross walks anyway.

[Dustdevil]

I had to submit to a background check and so did the rest of my paramedic class before we could get our license.

But that was the school, was it not? It is my understanding that the state does not currently run a routine check on every applicant unless they reply affirmatively to the criminal history question on their application.

It is interesting that every school I know of now runs criminal checks on their students, but the state itself does not.

[EmtFF99]

In Pa, if you have any type of Child &/or Eldery Abuse Hx you cannot get a job within the Health Field except as a FR, Emt or Medic. There a few Emts that I know of whom work for Private Services & Ems Services that have a past Child Abuse Hx,1 was fired from a Long Term Health Care Facility for abuse of their Residents (19 Counts) & has 8 counts of Past Child Abuse (Of her own kids) but yet works in the Private Ambulance Sector as a Emt. It something of this sort that bothers me to no end, to know that Pa does not & will not do a Child/Eldery Abuse Hx & a Criminal Background on Ems Personnel, whether they are paid or volunteer. Another classic example, A Volunteer Emt/FF whom spent 13 months in a County Jail for Possession of Drugs, Theft, Possession of Stolen Property & STILL holds his Emt Certs this very day! Now is the type of person you want walking into your home? The Emt whom has 19 counts of Eldery Abuse (All confirmed) & 8 counts of Child Abuse (Also all confirmed) working on you, your childern or a family member?

Now don't these same people deal with the Eldery & Childern -vs- the other jobs within the Health Field? Scary thought to say the least. There is a group of us, whom are going to petition the Commonwelath of Pa & the PaDOH about doing Criminal, Child/Eldery Abuse background Checks after the 1st of the New Year. We managed this a few years back & both the Commonwealth & the PaDOH started to do background checks on FR, & Emt Students, just in the SW Pa area (1999) there were 109 Perspective FR, Emt Students that were bounced out of classes for this, but the Commonwealth & the PaDOH went lax after 2001 & have not checked as extensive as what was done in the past.

[Nate]

But that was the school, was it not? It is my understanding that the state does not currently run a routine check on every applicant unless they reply affirmatively to the criminal history question on their application.

It is interesting that every school I know of now runs criminal checks on their students, but the state itself does not.

School background checks were done after I was done. The state does their own, I never cited any criminal history on mine, but got in trouble for trespassing as a kid and the state asked me about it. Nothing major, they just wanted to know. I didn't feel like it should have been on there because I wasn't 18 when it happened. They said I was right, they were just wondering what it was about.

[Savoy6]

The quality of providers is what the testing, education and hiring process allows. How deep should a state go and who should be kept out. Criminal backgrounds are just that. How high should the bar be set?

I would entertain comments from Missouri folks ONLY at Greg. Natsch@dhss.mo.gov I work on legislation and the process was and is open to the public, especially the background checks. It was a hard battle when we did it. providers didn't want to be checked.

If you knew some of the people involved in cases, you'd be shocked. Leaders in the EMS community, instructors, providers. People who'd been the voice of EMS in some cases. Quality providers that checks didn't catch, but their criminal behavior caught up to them. It's not a perfect system, but it does work.