Question

The Case of the Phony PA

As a Senior Investigator at University Hospital, you were awarded a large grant to study the effects of new medications on healing leg wounds. The grant calls for either a nurse practitioner (NP) or a physician assistant (PA) who will be able to document the processes and keep the paperwork up-to-date on the grant. You interviewed several candidates and have found that Charles Tony, a PA, appeared to be the best candidate. His resume indicated that he earned a bachelor’s degree from a prestigious midwestern university, worked several years as an EMT, then went to PA school and earned an associate’s degree as a PA. He presented diplomas and copies of licensure certificates and had excellent recommendations from many reliable sources. This package was presented to you by the Human Resources Department. He was interviewed by several colleagues who would be participating in the study and was hired. He began work and appeared to be doing a good job. After a few months, some strange events started to occur. For instance, the locker he shared with one of the physicians was broken into. Multiple purchases were made on the physician’s credit cards in a very short time. Mr. Tony claimed his wallet had been stolen during that same incident. Other employees stated he was acting somewhat strange around them. He began dating an employee in the institution, then her apartment was broken into. At this point, no one was really suspicious, and Mr. Tony appeared to perform the functions of this job without any problems. Approximately 14 months after he was hired, he did not show up for work, did not answer his phone, and none of the records he was responsible for could be located. You contacted the HR Department and they began an investigation. To everybody’s surprise, you learned none of his credentials was actually checked back to their primary sources. When this check was completed after he disappeared, none of the academic institutions had ever heard of him. His references were all fraudulent. The police searched his apartment and found many missing pieces of University Hospital equipment. Mr. Tony was, however, nowhere to be found. It appears you hired a true pretender.

1. Were there red flags that should have altered you to the problem earlier?

2. Provide a detailed plan for evaluation and verification of health care professional's credentials and recommendations to avoid this type of issue in the future.

Answer 1

Answer : A red flag use as a warning of danger . From this passage, we can understand that there were many red flags about the PA 's behaviour . Firstly , he tried to break his room mate's locker 2) he had stolen others credit cards 3) he began dating with an employee in that institution. 4) he broke the employees apartment . For preventing such incidents in the future 1) Government has to implement a proper plan for recording the details of all healthcare professionals (especially in both the university and government online websites.) . As a result , HR department can easily check the details of candidates informations regarding name , adress , profession  , department , course duration ,exam marks and others . 2) HR departments have to check the course certificates clearly and enquire about the candidates in the University , which university name mentioned in the certificate . 3) It is good for hospitals to take opinion about new workers especially from the managers , supervisors and colleagues . 4) Government has to take strict actions against agencies , which help to make duplicate certificates. 5) check whether the University name , signature , seal , photos and other remarks are original or not .