Staffing Firms Put Their Business ‘At Risk’ by Not Doing Background Checks

A 30-year old woman, high on crack, drove her vehicle into a crowd enjoying the Unifest Food and Music Festival in D.C., causing injury to 40 people including 7 kids. The woman had a crack pipe in her hand and her 7 year old child in the passenger seat. Tonya Bell of Oxon Hill, MD was charged with aggravated assault while armed. The woman had felony and misdemeanor arrests dating as far back as 1995 and served prison times for drug charges.
At the time of the incident, Ms. Bell was employed by a DC temporary staffing company on a receptionist assignment for the office of former mayor and now D.C. council member Marion Berry. After hearing of the horrific event, Barry’s office terminated the woman’s assignment. They also terminated their contract with the staffing company because “they may not have properly investigated her background prior to placing her in office”.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277779,00.html

It appears that an Ohio medical staffing company sent Herman Brown, a nurse aide, on an assignment to a hospital psychiatric ward. While on assignment, he was charged with (and pleaded not guilty to) “rape, kidnapping, gross sexual imposition and sexual battery”. Not only was Mr. Brown alleged to not have the credentials to do the job, the hospital officials are convinced that the staffing company did not do the REQUIRED background checks because “if the temp agency had done so, it would have found (prior) charges of theft, forgery, aggravated burglary and drug abuse.” “The hospital has wisely instituted a requirement that temp agencies show proof of background checks for their referrals.”

“The Ohio Hospital Association has severed ties with the agency that hired the worker.” The hospital has dismissed the other 15 temporary staff from their duties and severed its relationship with the temp agency.”

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=68746&provider=gnews