Due to its long involvement with the medical community, Adam Safeguard & Inquiry Systems, Inc. of Toms River, New Jersey was able to respond immediately to the above Joint Commission standard by offering a system with a criminal background check capability that met the needs of the affected educational institutions and their students.

Today, ever so mindful of the growing general employer practice of conducting applicant background checks in many job markets, Adam Safeguard is expanding its cutting edge service to include all college students. This is a very logical progression for the firm who's President, Dennis L. DeMey, has extensive experience in the area of pre-employment background review and analysis. Additionally, Mr. DeMey is the author of two texts in this field, "Don't Hire a Crook" and "25 Essential Lessons for Employee Management."

Historically, mandatory background checks have been generally limited to professional licensing boards as part of their license application process. Today, that is no longer the case. Requirements similar to those of the previously referenced Joint Commission are now being considered and/or applied by a number of organizations including Homeland Security Offices, The Office of Inspector General, the General Services Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and, of course, law enforcement agencies.

Since the majority of career paths now require a criminal search, many prospective applicants who have had a "brush with the law" during their early years are legitimately concerned about their future employment prospects. The question now becomes "It happened, now will it show? Do I have a record?" So many students, both medical and non-medical, have approached Adam Safeguard about determining whether their "incident" is now actually a part of their "record" that the firm has responded by developing a "Self Check" online ordering system specifically for this purpose.

Similar to the "School Check" process, students can now enter their personal identifiers and request a criminal history search based upon a desired location. The criminal search will provide reportable records as contained in the criminal files of a federal, state or county court depending on the service selected by the student. The method utilized is the same as that used by all professional background screening companies, vendors, and suppliers.

By expanding the consulting firm's scope of services to include all college students, Mr. DeMey hopes to create an early awareness among the general student population of the dramatic impact that a negative background check result can have upon employment opportunities. Ideally, such awareness may help curtail major future disappointments for students as well as their parents who continue to invest heavily, both financially and emotionally, in their child's education and career potential.

While Adam Safeguard is selected as the vendor by each client institution, the firm simultaneously serves the school, the clinical site and the student. In reality, the student is considered Adam's main customer. As such, the firm is dedicated to providing timely advice and guidance to students in attempting to correct any discrepancies found, addressing possible fraudulent identity related activity and outlining a procedure for disputing or clarifying other issues of concern that appear within a student's criminal report. In so doing, Adam Safeguard provides students with a summary of their rights under the federal "Fair Credit Reporting Act" as well as the applicable state consumer law which, in some cases, may afford more rights that the federal statute.

It is in such an environment that Mr. DeMey's vast information management and analytical experience plus his acute awareness of information industry practices are particularly invaluable. His 30 years of accumulated professional knowledge and insight into the criminal justice system, fraud investigations, insurance litigation, medical malpractice claims management and a variety of other due diligence related matters represent a combination of assets that is very likely unsurpassed as an information resource for the sensitive needs of the college student market.

The implementation of the new "Self Check System" will now afford every college student the opportunity to be fully cognizant of the potential for future repercussions that might arise as a result of their past indiscretions.