Negligent hiring or retention: is your organization at risk?

Healthcare organizations can be held liable for hiring agencies to provide healthcare professionals or for contracting independent contractors who are not qualified or competent to perform their duties, have past histories that would preclude them from being hired by other organizations, or have fraudulent education or impersonation of a licensed professional. Although the hiring company may vet the potential new hire, it is the final duty of the healthcare organization to validate the information obtained from the agencies or third-party vendors to show due diligence as they would for any permanent hire.

The validation includes hiring, onboarding, and mandatory training, as any licensed member of the organization performing the same job role would be expected to demonstrate. Further, using best practices to validate the professional's skillset using proven methodologies is an important aspect of showing due diligence.