The state moved Monday to broaden its investigation into procedures for licensing professionals after officials discovered that 13 people had obtained nursing licenses using false credentials.
The Board of Pharmacy and nine other professional boards have begun reviewing the work of Professional Credential Services, the Nashville company the boards hire to check applicants’ backgrounds.
“We take these allegations very seriously,” said Pete Fullerton, spokesman for the Division of Professional Licensure. “We have reached out to [Professional Credential Services] and we are meeting with them later this week to make sure they are thoroughly able to review all background credentials.”
Fullerton said the other professional boards had not detected instances of fraud, but “the cases of the 13 nurses raised concerns.”
It was another state regulatory agency, the Board of Registration in Nursing, that recently revoked or suspended 13 nursing licenses because of alleged fraud.
The fraudulent behavior involved applicants purporting to have licenses from other states. As a result, the nursing board has launched an investigation into its handling of applications from people with out-of-state licenses, and the board is also reviewing the performance of Professional Credential Services.
State officials have said they have found no link suggesting the nurses under scrutiny harmed patients.
The state Department of Public Health on Monday revealed that of the 13 people whose nursing licenses were revoked or suspended, one had worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the rest in nursing homes.
The nursing homes that hired one or more of the other 12 workers include Benjamin Healthcare Center in Boston, Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at Everett, Golden LivingCenter-Wedgemere in Taunton, Epoch Senior Living of Chestnut Hill, Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation in Braintree, Vero Health & Rehab of Mattapan, and Emerson Village in Watertown.
None of the nursing homes’ administrators replied to the Globe’s requests for comment.
The Brigham employee who regulators concluded had a phony license — identified as Jesula Eustache — had worked at the Longwood hospital from May through July of this year, according to hospital spokeswoman Erin McDonough.
“During that time, she was in a supervised orientation period in our surgical services, so she was not the primary nurse on any case nor to any patient,” McDonough wrote in an e-mail.
Mindy Kingston, a Boston lawyer who represents Eustache and another nurse, declined to comment.
The state nursing board revoked six licenses and suspended seven others in recent weeks after the issue came to light. The Department of Public Health said it has referred the apparent fraud cases to the FBI and the state attorney general’s office.
“My primary priority is protecting patient safety,” said Dr. Monica Bharel, commissioner of public health, whose agency oversees the nursing board. “We took immediate action in suspending or revoking those 13 nurses.”
By reporting that they held licenses from other states, the applicants could work in Massachusetts without taking a licensing exam. Professional Credential Services did not detect that those out-of-state licenses were fraudulent. The nursing board is checking back to 2010 to determine if other instances of fraud exist involving applicants with licenses from other states.
“This is still an active investigation,” Bharel said, noting the problem so far seems to involve only 13 people out of more than 160,000 licensed nurses in the state.
Fullerton said the nine other professional boards grant licenses to more than 152,000 professionals, including psychologists, chiropractors, optometrists, and funeral directors.
The background checks vary from board to board, Fullerton said, with some honoring out-of-state licenses with very little checking before granting a reciprocal Massachusetts license.
“Now, we will make sure [Professional Credential Services] checks them regardless of what the applicant has from out of state,” Fullerton said.
Mark Setash, president of Professional Credential Services, did not reply Friday or Monday to phone and e-mail messages from the Globe.
Nursing homes rely on the state nursing board to verify credentials, said Helen Magliozzi, director of regulatory affairs for the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, a nursing home trade group. Some hospitals independently check education and employment history, but not all.
“At this point, we trust the board will continue to be a reliable primary source — particularly now,” said Sarah Darcy, spokeswoman for South Shore Hospital.
McDonough, the Brigham spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail, “As we believed the licensure requirements in the Commonwealth to be stringent and all encompassing, it has been our practice to accept the verification process of the board.”
The case of one of those whose license was revoked by the state sheds light on how the alleged fraud was committed.
Guerla Belony, who worked at Kindred Braintree, had in 2014 obtained a license in Arkansas, after asserting on an application that she had a license from Puerto Rico, said Sue A. Tedford, executive director of the Arkansas State Board of Nursing. Tedford said that Arkansas had received a document with an authentic-looking seal, purportedly from Puerto Rico, saying that Belony had a license there.
Tedford said she does not believe Belony ever practiced in Arkansas. But Belony later applied for a license in Massachusetts, saying that she had an Arkansas license. Arkansas last week suspended Belony’s license after hearing from Massachusetts that her credentials were fraudulent.
A woman who identified herself as Belony, reached by phone on Friday, said she was unaware that her license had been revoked. However, a document provided by the state health department indicates that she signed a consent agreement on Sept. 2 acknowledging that she lied about having a registered nursing license in Puerto Rico. On Monday, Belony did not reply to a phone call.
Asked whether licensing fraud is commonplace, Dawn M. Kappel, spokeswoman for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, said, “This is the first time I’ve spoken to a reporter about this. I’m not saying it never happens. . . . I don’t know whether this is an anomaly.”
Felice J. Freyer can be reached at felice.freyer@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @felicejfreyer. Kay Lazar can be reached atKay.Lazar@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKayLazar.