Kimberly Smith is the Director of Health Information Management at Community Hea
ID: 420701 • Letter: K
Question
Kimberly Smith is the Director of Health Information Management at Community Health System’s Central City Medical Center. Kimberly hired Ricky, an outpatient coder, four months ago. Ricky consistently meets quality and productivity standards. Department rumors indicate that Ricky does not have an associate’s degree as he indicated on his application for employment. Kimberly called the college listed on the application to inquire of Ricky’s degree and was informed that he did not complete his professional practice experience due to excessive absences. He was asked not to return to the hospital and therefore did not complete his degree requirements. He did not earn an associate’s degree. Falsification of information on a Community Health System employment application is grounds for dismissal.
How should Kimberly proceed now that she has confirmation that Ricky entered false information on his application? How should she handle this situation?
Adapted from case 6-13.
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Explanation / Answer
This is a good case study which gives us a sneak peak into how actual hiring problems come in front of departmental heads in an organization. The gist of the case is - you have hired someone who is excellent at his job, does whatever is asked of him, has the necessary technical skills, but does not have a degree on paper. How do you proceed with this kind of a scenario?
The legally correct answer is Ricky should be dismissed. As hard as it may sound, it is important to note that in a Community Health System Application, if you lie while applying, then you have to be dismissed as per the rules. Kimberly should ideally go ahead with the termination of Ricky's services as no one is above the law/rules.
However, before proceeding with the termination, what Kimberly should to is schedule a 1:1 session with Ricky. Kimberly should sit down with Ricky, speak to him about the issue at hand and ask him why was this the case? Was it intentional or was there any other reason for having mentioned this degree on his application? Kimberly should listen to Ricky's side, take a rational view of the situation, and then see if it is worth defending.
If there is solid proof that Ricky had mentioned it on the application for a speciic reason, then Kimberly can defend it. However, if Ricky is not able to prove anything substantial against this allegation, Kimberly should proceed with the termination.
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