Home Health: Agency Must Look Into Live-In Companion's Background
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
July 1997
Quick Summary: Clients needing live-in companions are often helpless and ripe for abuse.
A sketchy application form and an interview over the phone, with no independent investigation of the applicant’s background, criminal history and work experience are wholly inadequate to protect vulnerable clients.
This applicant did not have a current valid driver’s license. In fact, it had been suspended for possession of cocaine and there was a record of property-related offenses, apparently to support the cocaine habit.
SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY, APPELLATE DIVISION, 1997.An agency hiring and providing home health personnel must investigate their backgrounds, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, has ruled. This is true even if the personnel are not licensed professionals or certified aides, and the court said drug and property-related offenses must be sought out in addition to incidents of abuse.
The court said it was a red flag that this applicant did not have a driver’s license. Unfortunately the court then left employers in a real bind when it conceded that a home health agency (in New Jersey) could not under state privacy laws inquire of the division of motor vehicles why an applicant’s license was suspended, or obtain a criminal record from the state police.
Lingar vs. Companions, 692 A. 2d 61 (N.J. App., 1997).