How Wellpath screens staff and contractors — what families should know

Staff screening is one of the clearest safety steps a facility can take upfront - it's designed to keep people with known risks out of resident-contact roles before they ever start. Wellpath's PREA policy says its facilities must comply with the Department of Justice's national PREA standards (28 C.F.R. Part 115), which focus on preventing, detecting, and responding to sexual abuse in confinement settings. In practice, that framework puts heavy weight on who gets hired, who gets promoted, and what information is checked before someone works around residents.

Before hiring anyone into a resident-contact role, Wellpath's policy requires a criminal background check. This applies to positions where staff or contractors can be alone with residents, enter housing areas, or have direct access. If you're trying to understand a facility's prevention efforts, this is one of the most concrete questions to ask: were the people working around residents screened before they started?

Wellpath's policy goes beyond basic background checks. Facilities must make their best efforts to contact prior institutional employers and ask about substantiated allegations of sexual abuse - or whether someone resigned while an allegation was still under investigation - before hiring or promoting anyone into a resident-contact role. This matters because not every serious concern shows up as a criminal conviction. Sometimes the most relevant information is in someone's work history and why they left a prior facility.

Screening doesn't stop at hiring. Wellpath's policy requires background checks to be repeated for all employees at least every five years. That re-check schedule matters - especially if your loved one has been at the same facility for a long time or you're trying to understand how ongoing risk is managed, not just new-hire screening.

If you're documenting a concern or trying to confirm what Wellpath's corporate policy says, you may need a corporate contact. Wellpath lists an email for press inquiries: corpcomm@wellpath.us. This won't replace the facility's own reporting channels, but it's a practical option for higher-level questions about corporate policy.

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• ✓ Do staff who may have contact with residents receive a criminal background check before they’re hired?
• ✓ Before hiring or promotion into a resident-contact role, does the facility make “best efforts” to contact prior institutional employers about substantiated sexual-abuse allegations or resignations pending investigation?
• ✓ When were background checks last repeated for staff, and does the facility track the “at least every five years” requirement?

If you've asked these questions and aren't getting clear answers - or you're reporting a safety concern tied to staff conduct - ask to speak with the facility's local PREA Compliance Manager. That role handles PREA-related coordination, monitoring, and reporting. If the issue involves a broader pattern or isn't being addressed appropriately at the facility level, the Corporate PREA Coordinator may be consulted. For corporate-level questions about Wellpath policy, you can also email corpcomm@wellpath.us.