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The state has begun exploring the possibility of establishing a database that would allow officials to conduct criminal background checks on employees in nursing homes, home health-care agencies, long-term-care hospitals and intermediate care facilities.

Jim Dube, an assistant attorney general, said the health-care reform bill earmarked $1.3 million for the program. He said Rhode Island has up to two years to get the program up and running and linked to a national database.

“We are looking into how to implement it and how the mechanism will work,” he said.

Dube said he has met with Elena S. Nicolella, state Medicaid director, and the attorney general’s fiscal intermediary for the Medicaid program about the grant and proposed database. The intermediary works for Hewlett-Packard. They will continue to discuss the possibilities in the months ahead.

Right now, nursing homes and health-care facilities are responsible for conducting background checks of their employees. Dube said it’s regularly done through the attorney general’s office, but the checks disclose only arrests and convictions in Rhode Island.

State police Lt. Raymond Studley, assistant detective commander, said state law does not require nursing homes and other health-care facilities for the elderly to conduct criminal background checks on its work force. He said some choose to do so, others don’t.

The proposed database would allow state officials to run background checks for convictions in Rhode Island and elsewhere.

Dube did not know how many people in Rhode Island are employed in the health-care field that provides services to the elderly. A spokesman for the state Department of Elderly Affairs said there are 86 licensed nursing homes in the state with 8,644 beds.

Last spring, a state report revealed that the population of residents at least 65 years old has surged in recent years. According to the 2000 census, 14.5 percent of the state’s population, or 152,402 residents, are elderly, a jump from 10.2 percent, or 87,552, in 1960.

By 2030, state officials project that 20 percent of the state’s residents, or 233,744 people, will be 65 or older.

Rhode Island was one of six states awarded more than $1 million in the first round of funding announced in late September. The other states that received a total of $13.7 million were Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida and Missouri.

The program will eventually award $160 million to states nationwide through September 2012.
The Rhode Island congressional delegation hailed the program as a way to combat those who abuse and prey on the state’s senior citizens.

“As the need for caregivers for senior citizens has increased, so has the need to screen applicants who are seeking to work with vulnerable, elderly patients in long-term facilities,” U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said in a statement.

Reed serves on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Retirement and Aging.

Added U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: “Our seniors should never have to fear for their safety when they enter a long-term-care facility. Expanding background checks for prospective caregivers will ensure that our loved ones receive the safe care they deserve.”