As a doctor of osteopathic medicine, your goal, even as you continue treating patients, is to safeguard your professional license. While obtaining a license is straightforward when you have the necessary skills and experience, keeping it can be an uphill task. The California Osteopathic Medical Board always ensures that the services you render to the public are of excellent quality and professionalism. If you make a mistake that puts your patients at risk of harm, the board can suspend or cancel your license.
At Fresno License Attorney, we help professionals like you understand the circumstances under which they can lose their license. We also help you defend your license by negotiating with the board or using the best defense strategies. You can work with us if there are allegations against you in Fresno that put your livelihood at risk.
Reasons to Defend Your Osteopathic Medical License
If you make a mistake as a doctor of osteopathic medicine, your licensing agency can take disciplinary action against you. This may involve an action that ruins your reputation or livelihood. However, you can defend your license to avoid any action that could ruin your career and reputation. Here are some of the reasons you should partner with a skilled license defense attorney if someone brings an allegation of unprofessional conduct or incompetence against you:
To Protect Your Career
Becoming a healthcare professional takes time. You need a considerable amount of training time to become a medical professional. A doctor of osteopathic medicine requires additional training to specialize in holistic treatment, enabling them to offer quality, reliable, and effective services to anyone who comes to them with any kind of illness. After spending so much time and money on obtaining the skills to build your career, you should do everything possible to protect it. An allegation of professional misconduct, negligence, or incompetence will likely result in the loss of your career.
Remember that your career is also your livelihood. You and your dependents depend on your career for necessities. Losing your career means you will struggle to meet your basic needs until you find an alternative way to earn a living.
To Protect Your Practice
If you run your own practice as a doctor of osteopathic medicine, you must protect it as much as possible. Sadly, this may not be possible if there is a complaint against you. Whether the complaint is false or due to an honest mistake you made, it could ruin your reputation and your practice.
Most people who seek specialized medical services opt to engage a reputable medical professional with excellent skills and experience. Once your reputation is ruined, you could start losing the patients you already have and face challenges engaging new ones. If the allegation goes into your record, it could take time to recover from the resulting damage to your practice.
To Address Misleading or False Allegations
The California Osteopathic Medical Board receives various allegations and complaints against licensed doctors of osteopathic medicine. Some allegations are true, while others are false or exaggerated. Although the board investigates claims before taking action, there is usually the risk that a false or misleading allegation will ruin your career and reputation.
It is necessary to take action immediately after learning about a complaint against you. A skilled attorney can address the allegation before it ruins your reputation or career. They can quickly gather evidence to counter the allegation and address the matter with the board before an administrative hearing is held to determine it.
To Ensure Due Process
When a serious allegation is brought against a licensed healthcare professional, licensing boards take quick action to protect the public. In your case, the Osteopathic Medical Board may quickly start an investigation against you and hold a hearing to prevent further harm to the public.
Having an attorney by your side helps prevent a violation of your rights. Your attorney will ensure that the board follows due process and issues the best possible ruling for the matter at hand. Your attorney will ensure that you enjoy a fair hearing. They may prevent an investigation by the board from escalating to a point where you face a formal accusation. They can quickly negotiate a resolution before the hearing to prevent the matter from escalating further than necessary.
Possible Allegations You Can Face as a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
The Osteopathic Medical Board sets very high standards for all holders of osteopathic medical licenses. You must demonstrate proper training, experience, and an undertaking of the code of ethics and laws that govern the medical profession. If you fail to live or practice to the set standard, you risk losing your license and livelihood. Here are common allegations that the board receives from the public that can put your license as a doctor of osteopathic medicine at risk:
Sexual Misconduct
As a healthcare professional, you must establish clear boundaries with your patients to ensure you conduct yourself professionally at all times. Any form of sexual misconduct puts your career at risk. The board can take action against you if there is an allegation or proof that you engage in sexual contact with your patients, even if the patients give consent. You could also lose your career if you are accused of inappropriate touching or failure to use the right draping during intimate examinations. Any form of inappropriate relationship, whether sexual or romantic, with your patients puts your entire career at risk.
Improper Prescriptions
You can also be accused of overprescribing a particular medication or treatment without a valid medical need. In most cases, this happens when a healthcare provider intends to gain more from a patient or their insurance provider. It demonstrates incompetence, which is a solid ground for license suspension or revocation. Additionally, it is a severe violation of your code of conduct to prescribe treatment without conducting a proper examination and discussing your diagnosis with your patient. If you are treating a person addicted to a particular medication, you put your career at risk if you prescribe or provide the medication they are addicted to.
Incompetence and Negligence
Since you are a holder of an osteopathic medical license, you are expected to demonstrate competence at all times when diagnosing and treating patients. Incompetence puts your patients at risk of harm. You could also be accused of negligence for failing to provide the expected level of care to your patients. If you fail to meet the standard of care expected of you, you put your patients at risk of injury or death.
An allegation under this category may occur if you misdiagnose a patient or fail to perform a specific procedure. You could also be accused of incompetence if you demonstrate a lack of knowledge of safe practices.
Unprofessional Conduct
You could be accused of unprofessional conduct for engaging in fraud, such as insurance fraud. This may happen if you bill an insurance company for services you have not provided, or falsify a medical diagnosis to receive a payment you do not deserve.
The board may also take action against you if you falsify or alter a patient’s medical records. You are expected to maintain all your patients’ medical records properly and provide any required information.
You also act unprofessionally when you provide unnecessary treatment—for example, ordering unnecessary tests or performing unnecessary medical procedures for medical gain.
Other ways in which you could be accused of unprofessional conduct include using misleading advertising practices to gain clients or operating without a valid license.
Impairment or Personal Misconduct
You could face disciplinary action by the board if you fail to conduct yourself in a manner expected of healthcare professionals. For example, if you work while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you put your patients at risk of harm. You should also not work while physically or mentally impaired because this affects the kinds of services you deliver in the long run. If you have a drug or alcohol problem, or a mental or physical condition, take time off to receive the necessary treatment.
In some cases, a prior or current criminal arrest or conviction may affect your professionalism as a doctor of osteopathic medicine. If the conviction is for a crime that substantially affects your professionalism, such as theft, domestic violence, or DUI, it may also affect your license.
Investigations and Disciplinary Actions by the Osteopathic Medical Board
When the board becomes aware that you have been unprofessional, incompetent, or negligent, the board may decide to investigate the case or dismiss it. In most cases, it dismisses unsubstantiated allegations. If the allegation feels credible, and there is evidence of your unprofessional behavior, the board will notify you of its investigation and a pending hearing. The investigation can take a short or long time, depending on the severity of the matter and the kind of evidence needed.
Once you receive this notice, start planning your defense. You increase your chances of obtaining a reasonable outcome if you fight the allegation or negotiate for a favorable outcome. The Osteopathic Medical Board exists for the public interest. Its primary mandate is to safeguard the public interests. This means that the board will not consider your best interests at the expense of your patients’ interests when determining the case. Also, the board will not hesitate to take strict disciplinary action against you, even for a minor violation, just to protect the public from physical harm or financial loss.
If you hire an attorney immediately after the notice, they could try to negotiate with the board for a timely resolution before a hearing. This saves everyone’s time and could lead to a favorable outcome. It will also protect your career and reputation, especially if the settlement happens before a formal accusation is brought against you. If such a negotiation does not work, your attorney can plan for your defense. They will use this defense during the trial to convince the administrative judge to issue a favorable verdict.
If a hearing happens, the board can take any of the following disciplinary actions against you, depending on the severity of the allegation and your track record of performance:
Citations and Reprimands
These are mainly used in minor violations. The board may issue a reprimand against you, warning you against the same or similar behavior in the future. If a citation is issued, you could be required to pay a fine of a particular amount. Generally, these are lenient disciplinary actions that do not necessarily affect your career.
However, they may affect your reputation since they are publicly issued. The board posts reprimands and citations on its public website, which is accessible to everyone, including your patients, employer, potential clients, and family members. If it ruins your reputation, it could eventually ruin your career. You need your attorney’s help to fight such a disciplinary action to reduce its impact on your livelihood.
License Suspensions and Revocations
These are mainly used for serious violations that pose a risk of physical or financial harm to the public. They affect your license and livelihood, and could leave you without work for years.
Suspensions are generally temporary, but they leave you without work for prolonged periods. After the suspension, you must go through a long and complex license reinstatement process, without a guarantee of getting your license back.
License revocations are permanent. They mark the end of a career you have worked and invested so much to build.
Your attorney can fight even the most severe disciplines to protect your license and livelihood.
Find an Experienced Osteopathic License Attorney Near Me
If your osteopathic license is at risk of suspension or revocation in Fresno, you can partner with us at Fresno License Attorney for legal advice and guidance. We can help you better understand your situation, the possible disciplinary actions by your licensing board, and your defense options. We can also start planning your defense early to increase your chances of obtaining a favorable outcome. Our deep knowledge of procedural requirements and specific rules of evidence required in administrative hearings puts us in the ideal position to defend your career. Call us at 559-388-5402 to discuss your situation and our services further.
