Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
Healthcare providers must ensure that employed individuals have a clear criminal background with no past history of abuse or neglect towards the elderly and remain circumspect about the possibility of stolen identities and protected health information.
A 47-year-old C.N.A. has been accused of stealing a nursing home resident’s credit card and using it to make personal purchases. Her license has been placed under an emergency restriction order by the Florida Board of Health pending the outcome of the charges alleging “grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and criminal use of personal identification.”
The family of the resident whose credit card was taken reported to the nursing home administrative staff that the resident had received a notice from the credit card company that the card had been used by someone to make purchases at several places around the Lake Wales area. The police were notified; and, after checking video footage at the Walmart in Lake Wales, it was noted that a woman wearing scrubs and making purchases using the credit card was identified by the facility’s administrative staff as the C.N.A. in question.
The accused C.N.A. was booked into the Polk County Jail in August and released on bail in October. Along with the trial for the thefts, the woman faces having her license permanently suspended or revoked when the nursing licensing board holds a formal hearing regarding her case. In the meantime, the woman is not allowed to work as a nursing assistant in any position where she might gain access to the financial information of any patient.
