Felony Drug Possession and Hospital Employment

That the character had a felony conviction wouldn't do much with respect to hospital employment. I know someone with a felony drug conviction who writes prescriptions.

Orderlies are pretty low-level in a hospital. I had a few friends who lost their jobs and without any particular skills in the area, picked up jobs as orderlies. It's just menial tasks, making beds, collecting laundry, moving beds around.

Or cleaning or laundry or kitchenwork? Our local hospitals privatized those jobs, and contracted them out to the lowest bidder. The words 'lowest bidder' to not inspire confidence in their screening.

Write quickly.

As a result of the situation that arose where a worker (David Kwiatkowski) with Hep-C infected multiple patients in the hospital in Exeter, NH, the situation is changing very, very quickly. As the investigation expanded, it was discovered this worker had been hired by multiple hospitals throughout the nation, been fired by the same multiple hospitals several times, was known by some hospitals to possibly have a drug problem, and still able to find employment in a hospital.

Liability for Exeter Hospital is over fifty million dollars and climbing. Numerous lawsuits by patients have been filed or will be filed shortly. Both the New Hampshire attorney general and the US Attorney for New Hampshire are investigating. Massive numbers of patients are being tested to see whether they were infected.

Massive changes in who can be employed by hospitals are happening as we speak. Every hospital in New Hampshire is reviewing every employee to make sure they are safe to be around both patients and drugs, drug control is drastically tightening, and interactions between staff and patients is being reassessed.

Write fast, because the answer to this question is changing as you write.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

I work at a hospital and we don't have anyone called an "orderly." At the lowest levels we have housekeepers, food service (cafeteria and also for patients), and patient transport.

To me, orderly does not equal housekeeper, orderly = patient transport, maybe.

The one who'd have the best chance for interaction with a patient would probably be the housekeeper. The other staff don't know much about their schedules or duties, so going into a patient's room to "clean up" wouldn't be a suspicious act, whereas a food service or transport person going in would have to have a specific reason for being there.