Section 129.09. Registry.

 

(1)   Content of the registry. The department shall maintain information about a person on the registry, including:

(a) The person's eligibility for employment in a department-approved or licensed health care provider.

(b) The person's social security number.

(c) The person's first name, middle initial, and last name.

(d) The person's current mailing address.

(e) The person's date of birth.

(f) The date the aide completed a training program approved under s. DHS 129.07 , if applicable.

(g) The date the aide completed a competency evaluation program, if applicable.

(h) The competency evaluation program number, if applicable.

(i) The dates, if any, that indicate the aide's employment status.

(j) The date the aide was included on the registry.

(k) The 2 character alphabetic postal code of any state other than Wisconsin in which a finding of abuse, neglect, or misappropriation has been placed on the registry against the aide.

(L) Any finding of abuse or neglect of a client or misappropriation of a client's property made by the department under s. 146.40 (4r) (b) , Stats., or, if appealed, by a hearing officer under s. 146.40 (4r) (d) , Stats., and a brief rebuttal statement provided by the affected nurse aide under s. 146.40 (4r) (e) , Stats., if the nurse aide disputes the finding.

(2)   Notification of completion.

(a) The department or the department's contractor shall place an individual's name on the registry within 30 days after an individual has satisfactorily completed the competency evaluation program.

(b) An individual who is eligible for inclusion in sub. (5) in the registry, but for whom notification is not required under par. (a) , or a hospital, nursing home, facility for the developmentally disabled, home health agency or hospice on behalf of that individual, may apply to the department to include that individual in the registry.

(3)   Application for inclusion on the registry.

(a) Upon receiving an application under sub. (2) (b) , the department or its agent shall review the application and make any inquiries necessary to determine if the individual is eligible to be included in the registry. False eligibility information submitted to the department or its contractor shall result in denial of the application or, if the application had already been processed, shall result in the individual's removal from the registry.

(b) Within 30 days after receiving an application, the department or its contractor shall approve the application and include the person in the registry, or deny the application. If the application for inclusion is denied, the department or its contractor shall give the individual, or the facility or agency that submitted the application on behalf of the individual, reasons, in writing, for the denial.

(4)   Release of registry information. The registry shall serve as an official record of persons who are qualified by training and testing, or experience, to work as a nurse aide or a medication aide. The department may use registry information in its surveys of facilities and agencies. With the exception of sub. (1) (b) , the information included in the registry about nurse aides is public information. A written request for registry information shall be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

(5)   Eligibility for inclusion on the registry. An individual is eligible to be included in the registry only if at least one of the following is true:

(a) The individual has, within 120 days of beginning employment as a nurse aide, successfully completed a training program and a competency evaluation program for nurse aides that are approved by the department under s. 146.40 , Stats.

(b) The individual has successfully completed an approved training program and a competency evaluation program in another state that meet criteria for acceptance in this state.

(c) The individual has completed a basic nursing course from a board-approved school for nursing under s. 441.01 (4) , Stats., or has completed a basic nursing course approved in another state by that state's board of nursing and the student nurse has successfully completed a competency evaluation program.

(6)   Eligibility to work as a nurse aide.

(a) State-licensed-only settings. Except as provided under sub. (7) , a person included on the registry under any of the paragraphs in sub. (5) , regardless of the title under which the person is employed, is eligible to be employed as a nurse aide by a health care provider.

(b) Federally-certified settings . Except as provided under sub. (7) , regardless of the title under which a person is employed, a person is eligible to be employed by a health care provider if the person is included on the registry under sub. (5) (a) , (b) or (c) , and if the person has performed nursing or nursing-related services for monetary compensation at any time during the 24 consecutive months immediately before the individual's employment in a health care provider's setting would begin. If a person has not performed nursing or nursing-related services for monetary compensation at any time during the 24 consecutive months immediately before the person's employment would begin, in order to be eligible to be employed by a health care provider, the person shall successfully complete a department-approved training and competency evaluation program, or a department-approved competency evaluation program for nurse aides.

(c) Student nurses. A person currently enrolled as a student nurse who has completed a basic nursing course at a school approved by the Wisconsin Board of Nursing under s. 441.01 (4) , Stats., is eligible to be employed as a nurse aide in a hospital, facility for the developmentally disabled, or federally-certified intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded even if that person is not included on the registry and even if that person has not successfully completed a competency evaluation program under sub. (5) (c) .

(7)   Employment prohibitions. A federally-certified nursing home may not hire or continue to employ a nurse aide who has a finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation entered on the registry as a result of an incident that occurred in a federally-certified nursing home. A federally-certified intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded may not hire or continue to employ a nurse aide who has a finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation entered on the registry.

(8)   Removing nurse aides from the registry. The name of a nurse aide who has not updated the nurse aide's employment history on the registry in the previous five-year time period will be removed from the registry, except that the names of nurse aides with substantiated findings of caregiver misconduct as defined in s. DHS 13.03 (13) will remain on the registry. For any person whose name is removed from the registry, In order to be placed on the registry again, the person shall successfully complete another nurse aide training program and competency evaluation.

CR 08-042 : cr. register November 2008 No. 635, eff. 12-1-08; renumbering in (6) (c) and correction in (8) made under s. 13.92 (4) (b) 1. and 7. , Stats., Register November 2008 No. 635 .

Note

Written requests for registry information may be sent to the Office of Caregiver Quality, P.O. Box 2969, Madison, WI 53701-2969. Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1