Hiring and On-Boarding Workforce Resources

Indiana Health Care Workforce Needs Request Form

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) now has an online request form for health care facilities, including long-term care facilities, with workforce needs to request assistance from those health care professionals who have volunteered or who are otherwise available to assist during this public health emergency, including health care professionals previously assigned to elective surgeries and those who have received a temporary license to practice, such as retired health care professionals and recent graduates of accredited medical, nursing, physician assistant, and respiratory care programs.

The Health Care Workforce Needs Request Form can be found here.

ISDH, in partnership with the Bowen Center, will then distribute information about employment opportunities within your facility to individuals who indicated willingness to serve and meet the specified criteria/need as outlined in your request.

TB Testing Requirements

The Indiana State Department of Health issues two orders that had been requested by the IHCA. Seperate orders apply to nursing facilities (March 20) and residential care facilities (March 20). The orders do the following:

• Changes the TB testing requirements for new hires to be completed within 90 days of employment;
• Suspends the required diagnostic chest X-ray for residents; and
• Changes the TB testing requirement for new admissions to be completed within 90 days of admission.

Physicals

• Waives the requirement that a pre-employment physical examination of employees be completed 1-mohth prior to employment (410 IAC 16.2-3.1-14(t).
• The current order applies only to nursing facilities (March 23).

Background Checks

• Limited Criminal History checks are still available and providing an instantaneous response via the ISP website. If you are experiencing delays on LCH background checks via your 3^rd party vendors, the fastest way to meet your statutory LCH background check requirement is to have your facility or HR staff directly enter applicant info to the site. We are aware that fingerprinting for follow ups on inconclusive results is currently unavailable. Please refer to the details below from March 28 guidance issued by ISDH.
  • On-Boarding Employees Fingerprinting – Clarifying Guidance for Comprehensive Care Facilities  – Health care facility includes residential care facility (even though the ISDH newsletter announcement only referenced comprehensive care facilities.)
    • § 16-28-13-4(a) (“Criminal History of Nurse Aides and Other Unlicensed Employees”) provides:
      (a)   Except as provided in subsection (b), a person who:
      (1)   operates or administers a health care facility; or
      (2)   operates an entity in the business of contracting to provide nurse aides or other unlicensed employees for a health care facility; shall apply within three (3) business days from the date a person is employed as nurse aide or other unlicensed employee for a copy of the person’s state nurse aide registry report from the state department and a limited criminal history from the Indiana central repository for criminal history information under IC 10-13-3 or another source allowed by law.This statute requires that the facility owner or staffing agency “apply” for the limited criminal history, but not that the requested report actually be obtained. All ISDH requires as proof of compliance is documentation that a facility has applied for either the limited criminal history or the more extensive fingerprint-based history available through the Indiana State Police.This guidance does not affect or relax the requirements of IC 16-28-13-3 (“Crimes barring employment at certain health care facilities”) or 42 CFR §483.12(a) (“Freedom from abuse, neglect, and exploitation”).
    • This statute requires that the facility owner or staffing agency “apply” for the limited criminal history, but not that the requested report actually be obtained. All ISDH requires as proof of compliance is documentation that a facility has applied for either the limited criminal history or the more extensive fingerprint-based history available through the Indiana State Police.This guidance does not affect or relax the requirements of IC 16-28-13-3 (“Crimes barring employment at certain health care facilities”) or 42 CFR §483.12(a) (“Freedom from abuse, neglect, and exploitation”).
  • Fingerprinting: IHCA/INCAL been working closely with the Indiana Department of Administration, who administers the third-party fingerprint vendor contract for the state, and they have listed to our recommendation to allow our mission critical LTC sector to continue signing up for fingerprints.
    • LTC facilities may now schedule the fingerprinting online using the unique “COVID-19 Criminal Record Review” option from the dropdown menu. Please note that many of the former fingerprinting sites are still unavailable, which may mean that you have to send your prospective employees further away to get fingerprinted. The ISDH guidance regarding background checks still stands, but know that you do now have availability of some fingerprinting options and we encourage you to use them, as well as the MyCase check and/or your third party vendor to make sure you are protecting your company and residents.
    • As of 4.10.20 minors are NOW ABLE to complete the fingerprint scheduling using the COVID-19 Criminal Record Review designation via the Indiana State Police fingerprinting registration portal. Please contact Zach Cattell at zcattell@ihca.org if you experience any issues with this functionality.