Rationale:
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has recommended that medical schools conduct criminal background checks on their students entering their clinical years.
The following outlines the rationale for performing Criminal Background Checks:
- To bolster the public’s continuing trust in the medical profession.
- To enhance the safety and well-being of patients.
- To ascertain the ability of accepted applicants and enrolled medical students to eventually become licensed as physicians.
- To minimize the liability of medical schools and their affiliated clinical facilities.
In order to conform with the AAMC recommendations and existing hospital requirements, we have decided to require Criminal Background checks (CBC) for our accepted students, as well as our students entering their clinical years. Therefore, we are requiring our incoming students to get criminal background checks by Sept. 1 of their first year and our rising third-year medical students to get criminal background checks by April 1 before starting their clinical rotations.
The following three clearances need to be done:
- Pennsylvania Criminal History (PATCH)
- Child Abuse History Clearance
- Federal Criminal History/Fingerprinting via Cogent
Certiphi Screening Inc. will be managing this requirement for the medical students.