Policy Change Requires Background Check for Hospital Volunteers

A few weeks ago, a woman walked into Suzanne Gray's office at the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center to offer her volunteer services.

The former Marine had just moved to the area and was excited about volunteering, but when Gray told her she would have to submit to fingerprinting and a background check, the woman became upset and left.

That might not be a common occurrence, but new regulations requiring background checks of hospital volunteers may throw some people off.

"The days of coming in and saying you want to play cards with the veterans that day are gone," said Jim Gleis-berg, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System.

The Joint Commission, through which medical centers receive their accreditation, changed the rules in January to include volunteers in the category of employees in terms of job application requirements, said Beverly Rice, director of volunteer services at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center.

Now, if someone goes into Stormont-Vail wanting to give of his or her time, the person has to have a tuberculosis screen and reference check, attend an orientation, and undergo a background check, which takes a few hours, Rice said.