Beware Group One (Dallas, Fort Worth, Howe: credit report, felon, job market)

[Jaedpact]

Any one else here arware of this entity? Its a data sharing service for HR departments created by and maintaned by the DFWHC or Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Commision. Basicaly its the fabled permanet record for every health care profesional. so if I leave a job in bad terms then it gets listed here in the groupone database and is observed directly by any other hospital I am loking to be hired by. The same Hospitals that created the Data sharing service. So my issues of Time and attendence when my Daughter was born over two years ago will haunt me in the context of Time and attendance issues only.

So then let us assume that i am a major hospital interested in hiring a nurse. I have access to group one and all I have to do is enter the nurses name in the database, so then i can go online to Monster or Career builder and search the resumes there and weed out people before even speaking with them.

This means that as a nurse in the field with former pronounced time and attendance issues located in my recent past I.E. the last two years. Then i can be completely overlooked and not given the opportunity to explain my indiscretions. I am therefore black listed. Is this not illegal? Should I not be pissed about this? Additionally should I not have access to the same information that has been reported regarding me?

This is nothing more than an alternate form of credit report right? It reveals information regarding my performance at past jobs. I should know when that information is accessed and by whom should I not? I should be given the opprotunity to contest it should I not? What do you guys think?

[Philip T]

Credit Report agencies get away with their slop by buying the US Congress in advance. Specifically, damage claims against them are limited to $1,000 by law. They know they can do a lot of slop and harm before someone will sue them, and they only risk the $1,000 limit (less than small claims court) even if they damage someone for millions.

On the other hand, the posse you are describing is probably not smart or crooked (yet). You may be able to educate them with a civil suit and get to pry some green from their wallets in process if you can show damages.

[loves2read]

is the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Commission a privately funded group--like a consortium of private hospitals or are the county hospitals like JPS and Parkland in there too--

web link to

DFWHC | For Consumers (http://www.dfwhc.org/GroupOne/Fair+Credit+Reporting+Act/For+Consumers.asp - broken link)

the Fair Credit Reporting Act states as its first "protection" that you must be told if the information in your file has been used against you--and YOU must give permission for a potential employer to have access to the file
so if you don't want them to see your info it sounds like you can certainly prevent it
of course then you get into the question box of WHY don't you want it to be seen and if employers are only screening files for people who say YES--look-at-my-file then you are blocking possible jobs yourself...
Personally after all the info thefts that happen to people who post resumes on line--I would not have a resume on Monster or Career Builder to get hacked--would just want to send resumes to specific jobs myself...but I am not in job market either...

[Trainwreck20]

I would think that hospitols would be a little leary of entering information in this system, for the same reason that most employers give out start date, end date, and confirm that you actually worked there - incorrect information can lead to lawsuits. On the other hand, if the information if correct and completely factual (based on records, etc.), then it is up to the reviewing entity to decide what is important and what is not.

I would think that you should have access, at least at the time that the information is entered into the database, to what was put there.

[Jaedpact]

I have sent an inquiry to GroupOne I'll keep it up to date here.

[lizziebeth]

As someone who used to work for one of the hospitals, it was how we did our background checks. However, it's not free so we would only do background checks on those who we were interested in pursuing for employment, ie. those we had interviewed at least once for a particular job. We couldn't just enter a list of names in the database. That would be an invasion of privacy, a waste of time and kind of a random way to find people or eliminate people.

I don't think you want a convicted felon taking care of grandma, do you? Or someone who doesn't have a valid nursing license taking care of your child. Sure, people who have served time deserve jobs after they leave prison but hospitals in general probably aren't the most logical places to apply. I understand that's not the case for you but that's at least one reason why background checks are done. If we didn't do it through Group One, we'd do a background check with one of the many companies who do that kind of research. At any rate, we couldn't do a background check until we had your completed employment application with a SSN where you acknowledged that you knew we would do a background check. We generally go off of resumes for the initial interview. The background check comes afterward. I don't see the "take a long list of RN names to monster and careerbuilder to screen people out" as a common method of recruiting.

Maybe things have changed in how Group One processes background checks but I wouldn't think so since what you describe would be illegal. If you are turned down for a job based on your background check/consumer report, we are obligated to notify you and you can get a copy of the report to see what's on there. And yes, you do have the right to contest anything on your consumer report that is untrue through the consumer reporting agency. Once corrected, it should be changed and any background verification company who pulls your records would get the same results.

Probably the best way to get in somewhere is to have someone refer you. Unless you're new to the area, I would think you'd have former co-workers who may have moved to other places to refer you to those companies. We love employee referrals. If someone is willing to refer you, that's always a good thing from my perspective at least initially. Then you'll have a chance to address any issues that you think might be of concern. I think it's understandable if someone has family issues that caused them to be away from the office/unit more than they should have been especially if it was a one time situation and not just general flakiness (because there are really some flaky people out there). However, as a hiring manager, I would want to talk to your former supervisors if I could. Some of them can't or won't talk but I would at least want professional references who can speak to your skills, work ethic and, yes, attendance issues. Past behavior is a pretty good predictor of future behavior. And, if you've ever worked in a hospital, you know that if you have team members who aren't reliable, the reliable people who show up when scheduled are the ones who get screwed. Your skills and work ethic as validated by a former supervisor would quite possibly outweigh your (hopefully) temporary attendance issues.

[loves2read]

I just wonder how significant being late or poor attendance from two years ago would be in a current application...

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by lizziebeth

And yes, you do have the right to contest anything on your consumer report that is untrue through the consumer reporting agency. Once corrected, it should be changed and any background verification company who pulls your records would get the same results.

I see a lot potential for abuse here. Just as an example ... if some manager unfairly puts some negative information into your file for arbitrary reasons that aren't job related ... it sounds like this puts the burden on you to correct it. And, quite frankly, I think that's wrong.

How long does that take and what do you do in the meantime? If it takes a month to correct the information (which is frequently the case with credit bureaus in general), and pretty much every Dallas hospital that you've applied to has already seen the negative report ... whether it's true or not ...

Seems to me that you're already screwed. What do you do? Go back to every hospital and say "Oh, btw, that Group One report on me is wrong." Seems to me it could be extremely difficult to overcome that initial negative impression.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but, there doesn't seem to be any due process here. It doesn't look like you have a chance to fight these allegations before they get into the database. Only after the fact when, more than likely, the damage is already done.

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I would think that hospitols would be a little leary of entering information in this system, for the same reason that most employers give out start date, end date, and confirm that you actually worked there - incorrect information can lead to lawsuits.

I'm an RN and, Group One does have a notorious reputation among nurses. It's very controversial. You'll find lots of discussions about it on nurse message boards. I personally know nurses who have refused to work in Dallas because of the Group One. Not because they have a bad employment history but because, the whole thing is pretty outrageous.

Of course hospitals are going to run criminal background checks, etc. That's standard. But Group One goes much further. I don't think there's anything like it anywhere else in the country, at least that I've heard of.

Personally ... I think this probably is illegal. If this was happening in California you can bet there would be a ton of lawsuits on this but, Texas is a right to work state where you can be fired without cause so, people are scared and don't do anything about it.

[loves2read]

I don't understand how this GroupOne was created under the statues for credit reporting agency--to me, this is a job history/personnel database--not a credit reporting agency--so don't see why it was allowed to piggy back on to same legal statue...

there is nothing those companies/hospitals would have to say about the credit worthyness of their employees--unless they borrowed money against future earnings and did not pay them back maybe...