All licensed healthcare workers in California -- including dentists -- will have to submit fingerprints within the next two years under a new directive from the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
The order follows news media reports that many healthcare workers are still practicing their professions despite criminal charges.
An article in the Los Angeles Times cited the examples of two dentists who continued practicing, even though one is facing trial on charges of fondling a patient's breasts and the other -- who is now retired -- is a registered sex offender.
The Dental Bureau of California has required dentists to submit fingerprints since 1986, but never collected them for some 16,000 dentists who have been in practice since before that year, the article said, quoting Cathleen Poncabare, the board's executive officer.
In addition to requiring fingerprints, the Department of Consumer Affairs is now ordering dentists and other healthcare workers applying to renew their licenses to disclose any conviction or administrative action against them.
The department will post the text of formal accusations on the Internet. Any healthcare worker whose record suggests a threat to patients can be suspended.
