ESR specializes in background screening for hospitals and JCAHO compliance 

Hospitals face new standards effective January 1, 2006 for verification of professional licenses

Effective January 1, 2006, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare

Organization ( JCAHO ) will require that hospitals and covered health care entities

conduct Primary Source Verification (PSV) on all licensed, registered or certified staff.

The rule apply to both employees and contract staff and also applies to the process of tracking license renewals as well. The new standard is contained in HR.1.20.

For hospitals and covered health care organizations, there is a logistical challenge in

obtaining, tracking, updating and maintaining an audit trail for all employees who are

required to be licensed, registered or certified. Licenses are typically checked when an

employee is first hired, but covered entities must now verify the information from the

primary source, track expiration and manage the process of updating records from the

primary source in order to be in compliance.

To help hospitals and covered entities comply, ESR has created special software for its clients called the ESR PVScheck Database . The software manages and tracks the entire process in accordance with the new standards. For example the software generates automatic reports on all employees and contractors with licenses that are expiring. The ESR PVScheck Database provides tools to conduct license verification for the primary source and to track all current and past licensees. Each department in the hospital can determine if it wants to conduct the Primary Source Verification itself, or have ESR do it. During a JCAHO audit, all necessary information demonstrating compliance with the Primary Source Verification rule is instantly available.

For more information on the database and how to be in compliance after January 1, 2006, contact Jared Callahan at jcallahan@ESRcheck.com or 415-898-0044 ext. 240

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