Too Many Kids Are at Risk for Abuse and Trafficking. Ensure Your Urgent Care Center Is a Safe Haven

Children and their parents should be able to trust that healthcare providers are among the safest individuals in the world to be around—with should being the operative word. Sadly, that’s an idealistic notion that doesn’t hold up when (fortunately rare) events prove otherwise. Most recently, as reported by 7News Boston, a physician in Massachusetts was one of four men arrested in a sting operation designed to snare individuals willing to pay for sex with 12- and 14-year-old girls they “met” online. Both of the would-be victims were actually undercover law enforcement and the suspects were each arrested when they arrived at the location agreed upon during their chats. The physician has been suspended by his hospital employer. While his guilt or innocence will be decided by the legal system, ultimately, the whole sordid story is a reminder that urgent care operators need to be ever-vigilant for red flags when hiring clinicians and office staff. For information that could be helpful in navigating that path, read Should An Urgent Care Operator Check The National Sex Offender Registry When Hiring Employees? in the JUCM archive.