Your medical license is an important part of your identity. If you are facing an investigation from a licensing board, you are probably wondering what you can expect and how you can protect your license. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs oversees complaints regarding licensed medical professional in the state. The Bureau of Enforcement and Investigation conducts the investigations of complaints.
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A DUI related driver's license suspension is a major issue for all productive members of society. We need to drive to work, be a parent, and simply live a normal life. My health care clients are acutely aware of this issue due to the medical employment circumstances in which they work. Travel nurses, agency nurses, locum tenens physicians, early morning surgeons, real estate sales agents, civil engineers, and last but not least pharmacists all need their drivers.
For many doctors, pharmacists, and nursing, medicine is a major aspect of their personality and identity. Compassion in care giving is a significant character trait of medical professionals. During this holiday season, working, attending work related holiday events, and gift giving are enjoyable aspects of medical professionals' lives.
The Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs is a division of the Pennsylvania Department of State and an important entity in the lives of Philadelphia medical professionals. That is because it is the entity that reviews, approves and revokes professional licenses for doctors, nurses and other professionals. When a medical professional's license is under review due to allegations of criminal conduct, it is the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs that will handle the hearing in an administrative setting.
Hearings before administrative bodies like the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs are similar to hearings that happen in courts. Administrative hearings have a narrow focus and limited powers, but individuals who are forced to appear in them as their livelihoods are threatened do have rights.
I represent medical professionals in their criminal and civil professional license disciplinary case. The criminal court hearings occur all over the Commonwealth Pennsylvania. I really enjoy this travel aspect of my practice, allowing me to visit a variety of county courthouses. Today I had the pleasure handling a medical professional's criminal matter in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.
I spend a majority of my time helping medical professionals secure and keep their professional license. Recently, a physician contacted me to discuss his group practice employment contract and his hospitalist job. Reviewing his employment contract enlightened me on numerous ways a single licensing issue can impact medical professionals' employment and future employability.
Many who enter the medical profession wish to ease the pain and suffering of the people that they treat. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists may take special care to ensure that the individuals that they treat are provided with the best possible care so that they have good prognoses and chances for recovery. Pennsylvania residents benefit from this measured approach to care and the dedicated focus of their medical practitioners.
However, as in all professions, medical care providers can become ensnared in enterprises that can expose them to criminal and civil liability. Not long ago a doctor's alleged actions brought him into the national spotlight. According to authorities, the doctor allegedly provided patients with prescription drugs that they did not need for his own alleged financial benefit.
Newspaper trumpet the legalization marijuana in several states. Articles track implementation of medical marijuana production, products, and sales in states with existing medical marijuana laws. Everyone is investing in marijuana producers and distributors. On November 12, 2018 the Philadelphia Inquirer reports with fanfare there are 84,000 Pennsylvanians registered as medical marijuana patients. The article emphasizes medical marijuana is not treating the medical condition stated on the licensee's card. Rather it is used to control medical symptoms of the 21 different serious medical conditions. Importantly, medical marijuana is replacing opiates to control pain and other disruptive physiological manifestations that originate from a diagnosed medical condition. This is success.
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