A federally commissioned report released Wednesday found that nursing homes in Louisiana failed to complete background checks on a portion of their non-licensed employees.

In conducting the audit to examine whether Louisiana nursing homes complied with federal requirements for backgrounds checks, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) chose a sample of 9 Louisiana nursing homes out of a total of 276 licensed facilities in the state, basing its sample size on a variety of risk factors and on the need to select nursing homes in urban and rural settings, the agency said. Data was examined for the period between October 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022.

From the 9 nursing homes, OIG reviewed background checks for 209 non-licensed employees and verified the licensure status of 77 licensed employees, for a total of 286 employees, the OIG report states.

“Although Federal requirements do not specify the methods or types of information that should be considered for a background check to be regarded as having been satisfactorily completed, we identified potential limitations in the nursing homes’ background check searches and adjudication methods for 49 of the 209 non-licensed employees we reviewed.”

In response to OIG’s findings and recommendations, Louisiana has agreed to update its standard survey process to ensure routine monitoring of nursing homes’ compliance with background check requirements by reviewing a sample of 5% of current non-licensed staff and by directing nursing homes to conduct self-audits of current personnel files.

Moreover, State police or authorized agencies will conduct the background checks for employees, as state officials plan to offer nursing homes with training on the matter as well as post informational material to the state’s website.

Among the findings, some disturbing practices emerged. Of the 9 nursing homes closely investigated, six nursing homes, and some of the staffing companies with which they contracted, had employee background check searches conducted that did not include a statewide search of State police records.

“The lack of a statewide search leaves a nursing home vulnerable to hiring someone who might have committed a prohibited offense,” the OIG report concluded in offering recommendations, including making sure staffing companies are contractually required to complete background checks, to avoid future problems.

As for the 77 licensed employees in the sample of 9 nursing homes audited by OIG, they were “free from any disciplinary action against their professional license,” the report noted.