Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly are responsible for providing everything their residents need to stay safe and live as healthily as possible. That includes adequate staffing. So when someone calls out sick, quits unexpectedly, or otherwise leaves you in the lurch, it can present a big problem.
To help maintain the around-the-clock coverage they need, many RCFE owners turn to staffing agencies. Having access to their pool of personnel can help you plug gaps quickly. If you go this route, though, it’s important to think through the insurance implications.
Temporary workers can mean expanded liability
You spend a lot of time and energy training your team. Your internal staff is familiar with the policies and procedures you’ve put in place to protect residents. Someone from a staffing agency isn’t going to have the same level of knowledge there.
That unfamiliarity can increase the risk of mistakes that harm residents, like misadministering medication or inadequately supervising a resident with fall risk.
Ideally, the staffing agency’s insurance coverage steps in should you face an incident like this. But there’s a world in which your RCFE could be held liable alongside the staffing agency. That’s particularly true if your contract with the staffing agency leaves a hole for indemnity.
This isn’t to say that it’s imprudent for RCFEs to work with staffing agencies. If you decide to go that route, though, you should put some extra safeguards in place.
Take extra steps if you use a staffing agency
To protect your facility if a temporary hire makes a mistake (or even intentionally harms a resident), we recommend doing a few specific things:
- Get clear on the agency’s coverage. Ask the staffing agency for copies of their certificates of insurance and any applicable endorsements. You can even bring those to our team for review. We can help you pinpoint any areas where insufficient coverage from the agency could expose your RCFE.
- Establish strong contracts. The contract you have with the staffing agency needs to be crystal clear on indemnity (one party’s responsibility to financially compensate the other in the event of an issue). Ideally, you’re not responsible for indemnifying the agency. Instead, the contract should have a clause that says they will indemnify you if one of their staff’s actions leads to legal proceedings. Additionally, the contract should include details about the staffing agency’s employee screening, training, and supervision. This way, if an issue does arise, you have legal grounds to essentially argue that the agency’s personnel should have known better.
- Share company policies with agency hires. Each time you welcome a new agency worker to your facility, carve out some time to share your policies and procedures with them. Make sure they have ample opportunity to familiarize themselves before they start interacting with residents.
- Talk to your insurance broker. An RCFE insurance expert can evaluate your coverage against the staffing agency’s coverage to help identify potential holes. They can also make sure you have the policies you need to respond to a claim with a temporary worker if one arises.
If you plan to use a staffing agency at your RCFE, get in touch with us first. Contact our team at InsureMyRCFE at (805) 413-5668 today.
