Dive Brief:
- Colorado legislators have sent a bill to Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) that would require surgical technicians to undergo a fingerprint-based criminal background check and pass a drug test in order to work in the state, the Associated Press reported.
- Rep. Susan Lontine, co-sponsor of the bill, suggested such checks might have stopped HIV-positive technician Rocky Allen from gaining employment at a suburban Denver hospital where he stole syringes with fentanyl and put patients at risk of infection.
- Colorado officials suggested that not only does the state need to tighten its controls over healthcare workers with access to drugs and patients, but that it's a nationwide issue as techs like Allen hop from state to state.
Dive Insight:
A national registry could be the answer to tracking techs between states, experts said, because current requirements vary among states and leave room for workers to leave previous transgressions behind them -- like Allen, who had reportedly been fired from at least five hospitals in Coloado and other states, and simply omitted some of his work history from his resume.
Techs do not face the same scrutiny as physicians or nurses, experts told the AP, being only required to self-report any civil, criminal, or administrative action tied to their jobs and to disclose the most recent five years of their employment history.
The case with Allen has once again brought the matter to light, though it is far from the first such incident. Colorado has seen related cases, including one in 2010 in which surgical tech Kristen Parker received 30 years in prison after stealing and returning syringes that infected three dozen people with hepatitis C.
Little information was available on regulation efforts in other states, the AP reported. It noted that according to the Association of Surgical Technologists, North Dakota and Washington require techs to register with the state, while Indiana, New Jersey and New York require 15 hours of annual continuing education.