Tag: medical board

Do license applications cause a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach?

If you are a physician, pharmacist, or nurse applying for a new license, or submitting a renewal application on an existing license, you have faced the “disclosure questions” that can be troublesome for some to answer. If you have recently hit the “submit” button, and experienced a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, you know what I am talking about.

Avoiding mistakes in the first place – one example

A common example is the arrest, stop, or conviction for driving under the influence of intoxicants – or a DUII. You must read the disclosure questions carefully, and just because you answered “no” in one state does not mean you will be able to answer “no” in all states in which you are licensed, or seek a new license. For example, a physician licensed in California, Oregon, and Washington, filing online renewal applications, will face different questions in each state and, depending on the facts of the DUII, may not need to disclose the traffic stop in Californian or Washington, but will almost always be required to disclose the traffic stop in Oregon. It all comes down to the specific facts of your case and how each state’s disclosure questions are worded and, with respect to this example, the Oregon Board of Medicine asks the tougher question. To avoid mistakes, it is necessary to read the disclosure questions very carefully, and to answer each question accurately. If you have a doubt, or experience that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, stop, and consult an experienced licensure lawyer immediately.

Too late? – Correct your mistake by filing an amended application

If you are a physician, pharmacists or nurse, and you have recently answered “no” to a disclosure question that required a “yes” answer, if you take quick action, it is not too late to amend your license application, to correct your mistake. I recently represented a out-of-state nurse that found herself in such a position. She had a minor criminal history incurred while she was young, before she was a nurse. She very much wanted an Oregon nurse’s license, and she did not want to make a mistake that would risk her license application, but the moment she submitted her online application to the Oregon State Board of Nursing, she feared she has acted too quickly, and that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach set in. She called me, and I quickly called the Oregon State Board of Nursing, to ask that the Board hold off and wait for our amended application. Together we reviewed her application for completeness, and determined a small amount of information should be supplemented, and we quickly furnished it to the Board of Nursing, supplementing, or amending, her previous application. The Board of Nursing responding favorably, and she is now an Oregon registered nurse.

What not to do

I am aware of one case involving an out-of-state pharmacist that never disclosed a decades-old drunk driving arrest, and another case involving a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) that never disclosed a decades-old disorderly conduct arrest. Their failure to disclose in other states went undetected for numerous renewal periods, creating a false sense of comfort, until the pharmacist and the nurse each applied for licenses in Oregon, with the Oregon Board of Pharmacy and the Oregon State Board of Nursing, and their failure to disclose was caught.

For whatever reason, an old incident that should have been disclosed in each case, but was not, and was never caught elsewhere, was caught in Oregon. I don’t know if this was due to constant improvements in search engines and data banks, or if the background checks in Oregon are more rigorous, but it matters not – if disclosure was required, and the failure to disclosure is caught, you have a problem.

Medical licensing Boards see the failure to disclose as a veracity problem, not a mistake, and oftentimes the failure to disclose is worse than the underlying problem that required disclosure in the first place. Do not make this mistake. Take proactive steps to correct your application before the mistake is discovered. Please know that once the mistake is caught by your licensing Board, it is no longer considered a mistake. You now have a larger problem.

Can my licensing Board really do that?

Licensing boards are administrative agencies acting pursuant to administrative law

In the past several years I have been approached by three physicians wanting to sue the Oregon Medical Board in a “real court,” usually meaning a state trial court. All three physicians were angry or frustrated, and all three were dismissive of the Oregon Medical Board’s authority and power. Earlier this year a pharmacist asked me if the Oregon Board of Pharmacy “can really do that?” The pharmacist seemed doubtful that the Board of Pharmacy had that kind of power over his license. All four licensees were frustrated by the strict sanctions threatened by their State licensing Boards.

The range of sanctions

In three of the four cases, the licensing Board was threatening substantial probation and/or revocation, which is at the “heavy end” on the sanction continuum. Sanctions include, for example, being reprimanded; being temporarily suspended, indefinitely suspended, or permanently suspended; or having your license revoked. Sanctions further include fines, continuing education, recurrent training, the imposition of a mentor and/or a monitor, and periods of probation (three to five years is not uncommon). One or more sanctions may be imposed in combination, as each individual case warrants, or the licensing Board sees fit.

The answer is “yes, for the most part, the Board really can do that”

The answer is “yes,” state licensing boards, whether it be the Oregon State Board of Nursing, Oregon Board of Pharmacy, or Oregon Medical Board, are all acting pursuant to State law and, when they are acting within the scope of their enabling legislation (legal authority), they really can do that. The scope of each Board’s legal authority is established by the Legislative Assembly in Salem, which passes statutes to create and empower each of the State licensing Boards. State law also includes the Oregon Administrative Rules (OARs) promulgated by each of the licensing Boards in the furtherance of their mission.

Exceptions

There are some exceptions. For example, if a State licensing Board is acting outside of its scope of its power (the agency’s enabling legislation), then the Board’s action may be challenged on that ground. Similarly, if you contest your case all the way to hearing and lose, you may appeal, seeking judicial review by the Oregon Court of Appeals, but you will not prevail unless you establish that your Board committed legal error, or took action that is not supported by “substantial evidence.” Neither type of challenge is a good bet, and it is not the place to start in any event.

Be smart – do not delay taking action

If you are prudent, you will not stake your case on state court legal challenges and appeals. Your first, best, and least expensive opportunity is to work directly with your State licensing Board. Get involved from the start. Unfortunately, too many licensees wait too long to obtain legal advice – until shortly before or after being interviewed by field investigators or licensing boards, or worse, after receiving written findings and proposed sanctions, i.e., a notice of proposed disciplinary action. At this point, your licensing Board has reached conclusions about your practice and your opportunity to participate and influence proposed findings and sanctions has been greatly lost. But even at this late date, there is still important work to do. For example, the next step may be to negotiate a settlement, or to proceed to an administrative hearing. No matter what you do, however, you will need legal counsel.