KETTERING — Kettering Health Network hopes to save more than $5 million a year by avoiding “bad hires” through the use of a Web-based tool that allows for a more thorough screening of job candidates, according to a news release.

KHN is spending $35,000 to use a Web-based job candidate screening application, SkillSurvey, Inc.’s Pre-Hire 360. KHN officials now can ask job candidates to invite references to evaluate their past performance. Responses to behaviorally-based questions are aggregated through a database to address references’ concerns about retribution from bad feedback.

KHN based its projections on a four-month pilot project through which it avoided hiring 23 candidates who KHN deemed not right for the job. Assuming an average wage rate, KHN projects a year’s worth of inappropriate hires would cost it about $5.25 million.

KHN’s hospitals include Kettering, Grandview, Sycamore and Southview medical centers, Greene Memorial Hospital and Kettering Behavioral Medicine Center.