Missouri Professional Licensing Attorney Explains Discipline Against Emergency Medical Technicians

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Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are unsung heroes in today’s world. Police and fire personnel are glorified (and vilified) for their actions. EMTs, on the other hand, get little thanks for the job they perform. They are on the front lines and a glimmer of hope for those in desperate situations. EMTs are inadequately compensated comparatively, yet they are required to maintain the highest ethical standards and competency standards as other more highly compensated professions in the medical field. EMTs study hard and train hard to obtain and keep their EMT license. If you or someone you love is an EMT or paramedic facing disciplinary action in Missouri, professional licensing attorney Danielle Sanger can help.

Missouri legislature determined the qualification and ethical responsibilities for EMTs in their state. The legislature established a Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (“Bureau”). The Bureau has the authority to review the conduct of licensed EMTs.  The Bureau falls under the purview of the Department of Health and Senior Services (“The Department”). The Department has the power to authorize new licenses, renew licenses, and deny applications for new licenses and renewals. The department is authorized to suspend or revoke licenses as well.

The Department derives its authority from a state statute as well as the Missouri regulations. The Department may discipline an EMT for one or more of many specified reasons. Alcohol and drug consumption if such consumption affects the EMT adversely; being convicted or pleading nolo contendre to criminal charges if the criminal conduct relates to the duties of an EMT or the criminal conduct was fraudulent in nature are two of the reasons the Department may take disciplinary action against an EMT. The Department may also take disciplinary action against the EMT if the EMT becomes incompetent, commits fraud, gross negligence, or violates a professional trust or confidence. Furthermore, the Department is authorized to take disciplinary action on an EMT license if the EMT commits repeated acts of negligence.  The statute and regulations require compliance and cooperation with any investigation into wrongdoing conducted by the Department.

The Department must follow the established administrative procedure under Missouri law before taking disciplinary action. There is an exception. The regulations authorize the Department to take immediate adverse action against EMT and suspend the EMT’s license if the Department finds that there is an “imminent threat to the public health.” The Department must file a complaint with the Administrative Hearings Commission containing those allegations contemporaneous with the decision to suspend the EMT’s license.  The Department must give the EMT proper written notice. The notice must include a statement setting forth the reasoning for the Department’s action. Additionally, the notice must set forth the rights of the EMT to appeal the Department’s decision.

The imminent threat suspension appeal procedure is designed to move quickly. Once the Department files a complaint against the EMT alleging an imminent threat, then the EMT has ten days to appeal that finding to the Department.  The Department must conduct the appeal hearing within ten days of the notice of appeal. The Department’s decision remains in effect until a court or the Administrative Hearings Commission overturns the Department’s decision.

In the normal case, the Department files a complaint with the Administrative Hearings Commission and litigates the case. The EMT enjoys all of the rights a licensee has before the Administrative Hearings Commission. The EMT has the right to proper notice of the allegations, the right to discover the Department’s evidence and then to a fair hearing at which the EMT can cross-examine witnesses and put on evidence in his defense.  The Department has the authority to punish the EMT with a sanction such as a fine, additional educational requirements, probation, or suspend the license for up to three years. The Department may revoke the license as well.

Missouri Professional Licensing Attorney Ready To Help

If you are an EMT or other medical professional facing discipline in Missouri, do not take the allegations lightly. Missouri Professional Licensing Attorney Danielle Sanger will thoroughly investigate allegations of misconduct so that you can put forth the best defense to save your career and your livelihood. Call Missouri professional licensing attorney Danielle Sanger at 785-979-4353 today to schedule your free consultation.

Kansas And Missouri Professional Licensing Attorney Discusses The Complications Surrounding Emergency Medical Responder Ethics

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EMTs, paramedics, and other medical first responders have a high-stress job. EMTs and other “pre-hospital” personnel (collectively EMTs) are highly trained, highly skilled professionals upon whom we relied as a society to treat our sick and injured without regard to race, color, creed, or nationality. They are essentially doctors in the field. We rely upon them to properly and expeditiously treat us when we call them. We expected EMTs to provide accurate medical advice and counseling while maintaining our privacy and protecting our dignity. The responsibility they take upon themselves in choosing the profession is enormous. Treating numerous people in various scenarios creates potential ethical problems for EMTs on a daily basis. Kansas and Missouri professional licensing attorney Danielle Sanger respects their profession and stands ready, willing, and able to defend their licenses should their ethical judgment be challenged.

EMTs respond to thousands upon thousands of calls per year for service across our nation. In 2012, Kansas City, MO fire departments received 58,610 calls for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) alone. Kansas City ranked 21st out of the top 100 cities in the United States for the total number of calls. Given the sheer extraordinary number of patient contacts per year, EMTs must make voluminous, rapid, and correct treatment decisions. Each patient contact is another opportunity to make a mistake, through intentional or unintentional conduct.

EMTs must learn the ethical canons that guide their professional decision making. The ethical canons for EMTs are the same as those medical doctors and nurses must follow. The notion of justice, meaning the medical system must be “fair and reasonable,” guides EMT decision making.  EMTs must follow the idea of beneficence, which is acting in the “best interest of the patient.” Lastly, EMTs must adhere to the philosophy of autonomy, or complying with the patient’s wishes.

Learning and following the EMTs’ ethical mandates appear to be easy to do at first blush, however, successfully implementing the rules in practice is challenging. For instance, the issue of the advanced directive is particularly vexing. A patient’s family member may present the EMT with a “Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)” order, or a living will, or some other document purporting to be the wishes of the patient. EMTs may need to question the authenticity of the document because, absent a clear and unambiguous order, the EMT must perform lifesaving measures. Conversely, if the EMT knows about a valid advanced directive and wishes to honor it, the EMT can become conflicted when a family member begins to question the validity of the document or the true intentions of the stricken.  The scenarios are difficult. The EMT is well advised to perform lifesaving measures in the field and transport the patient to a medical facility for further evaluation and treatment.

An EMT may only treat a patient with their consent. An ethical conundrum occurs when bystander calls for EMS, yet the potential patient has withheld consent to treatment. The EMT must treat the patient if the patient is unable to speak for themselves. However, the EMT must respect the wishes of the patient if the patient understands the situation and the ramifications for refusing, or accepting medical care. Problems occur when the patient has consumed alcohol or has a head injury, which causes cloudy judgment. The EMT is must decide whether providing care is appropriate.

EMTs must also bear in mind that patient confidentiality is paramount. EMTs must take every precaution to avoid disclosing confidential information about a patient. Disclosing patient information can lead to serious ethical problems.

Where To Turn For Help

Kansas and Missouri professional licensing attorney Danielle Sanger dedicates herself to providing professional licensees, like EMTs and other medical professionals, with exemplary and expert legal service. Attorney Sanger understands the commitment licensed professionals make to their callings and uses her skill and ability to protect their livelihood. Call Kansas and Missouri Professional Licensing Attorney Danielle Sanger at 785-979-4353 today to schedule your free consultation.

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Kansas Professional Licensing Attorney Examines The Social Worker Turnover Problem At DCF

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Kansas’ Department of Children and Families (DCF) serves children who are in need. Social workers employed by the agency are in great need. In 2015, the agency experienced a nearly 25% turnover of its social workers. The agency’s remaining social workers absorbed the departing social workers’ caseloads.  Social workers already suffer from tremendous stress and are overburdened by enormous caseloads. Losing one-quarter of the workforce in a calendar year causes an ethical dilemma. A social worker is not exempted from ethically performing her duties simply because a social worker has a large caseload. Kansas professional licensing attorney Danielle Sanger represents professional licensees, such as social workers, who face discipline.

The glut of social workers employed at DCF in Kansas created a very dangerous situation for children in need throughout the state. DCF claims that no child faced any danger because of the shortage. DCF recognizes that its failure to offer competitive salaries coupled with social workers working in potentially dangerous situations contributed to the loss of personnel. DCF proposed to fix these problems by providing social workers with mobile devices allowing social workers to complete reports remotely and to contact police if they find themselves in a hazardous situation while investigating cases in the field.

DCF also proposed expanding its ranks to include practitioners of other behavioral sciences. The expanded list includes licensed social workers with a bachelor’s degree, licensed psychologists with a master’s degree, licensed professional counselors, clinical psychotherapists, and certified marriage counselors. DCF workers lauded expanding the list because it alleviated some of the burdens upon existing social workers.

Some questioned the wisdom of expanding the list of behavior scientists beyond social workers. The idea received criticism because commentators questioned the methodology of other professions to perform social work. Psychotherapists and marriage counselors, for example, provide consumers with counseling and therapy, not social work. Social work entails asking tough, probing questions of frequently reticent and uncooperative clientele. Conversely, working for DCF requires social workers to remove children from homes, find placements, and deal with emergency situations. Additionally, social workers are specifically trained by DCF to write reports to be used in court. They are also trained to recognize and possibly diffuse dangerous situations while visiting residences. The other professionals have no training in these matters. Critics of the proposed expansion question whether counselors and therapists practice beyond what their licenses allow.

Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board (“the Board”) issues licenses for social workers, psychotherapists, and marriage counselors.  The Kansas Legislature authorized the Board to discipline social workers and other behavioral scientists for unprofessional conduct. Regarding social workers, the Board characterizes unprofessional conduct into approximately 56 different categories. Overburdened DCF social workers can unwittingly commit an act of unprofessional conduct as a result of attempting to juggle an overwhelming caseload. Overburdened social workers easily suffer fatigue leading to a lapse in judgment. Lapses in judgment can violate a social worker’s code of professional conduct.

The Board defines lapses in judgment as unprofessional conduct.  A social worker must recognize and seek treatment for their mental health and emotional problems that interfere with their practice as a social worker. Consequently, if an overburdened DCF social worker’s performance diminishes or their ability to function as a social worker decreases, then the social worker must address the problems. In other words, if a social worker is drowning in work that they cannot meet the needs of a particular client, they must act to rectify that situation. Failing to do so is unprofessional conduct. It is easy to see how a DCF social worker could fall into that trap unwittingly.

Help For Those Who Help Others

If you are a social worker and find yourself facing professional discipline, call Kansas Professional Licensing Attorney Danielle Sanger. Attorney Sanger prides herself on fighting for those people who fight for others. Call Attorney Danielle Sanger today at 785-979-4353 to schedule a free consultation.

Kansas Professional Licensing Attorney Explains Discipline Of Technical Professionals

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In Kansas, architecture, landscape architecture, professional engineering, professional geology, and professional surveying are known as technical professions. The Kansas Board of Technical Professionals (“the Board”) issues licenses for technical professions. The Board also has the authority to institute disciplinary actions for technical professionals as well.  The Board works to make certain that each technical professional licensee maintains the highest standard of work in their profession and maintains the highest level of ethical responsibility. Failure to maintain the standards of a technical professional leads to disciplinary action. Kansas professional licensing attorney Danielle Sanger represents professional licensees against disciplinary actions with great zeal and vigor with tremendous results.

As with all professional licensing boards in Kansas, the Kansas Board of Technical Professionals authority to issue licenses and determine disciplinary action comes from state law. The Kansas legislature charged the Board with the task of maintaining the highest level of integrity, skill, and technical proficiency. Ensuring that each technical professional licensee aspires to those laudable attributes preserves the public trust and safeguards against damage and injury to the public to whom the licensees provides a service.  Each person wishing to practice a technical profession must satisfy the Board based upon satisfactory testing scores and possess the minimum character traits before the Board issues a license.

Concomitant with the Board’s authority to issue a license is the Board’s authority to discipline a license. Kansas law explicitly limits the Board’s authority to discipline its members. Discipline may take the form of probation, censure, reprimand, suspension or revocation of a license. The Board has the authority to start disciplinary action for allegations concerning obtaining a license to practice a technical profession fraudulently, gross negligence or incompetence, misconduct or showing no regard for the rights of other people while practicing in the profession. The Board may also issue discipline for a conviction of a felony criminal act in Kansas or another state or committed against the United States. The Board may discipline a business organization as if the business organization was an individual. Also, the Board possesses the authority to reinstate a license which the Board revoked if seven members of the Board agree to reinstate the license.

At the initial disciplinary stage, the Board conducts a hearing to determine if any wrongdoing occurred and what, if any discipline, should be levied. The Board has the power to order witnesses to attend and testify at a hearing before the Board. The Board may also compel any witness to bring documents, records, books, or other materials relevant to the hearing.  The hearings must be held according to Kansas’ administrative procedure act. Therefore, the licensee facing discipline must receive proper notice of the allegations, have the right to be represented by counsel, and to examine witnesses for or against them. Proper notice to the licensee includes a provision alerting the licensee that they have 15 days in which to appeal the Board’s decision.

A person aggrieved by the Board has the right to appeal the decision to a court in Kansas with jurisdiction over the issue.  The licensee may appeal the final decision of the Board to the courts and only after exhausting all “administrative remedies.” In a rare instance, the court will permit review of the Board’s decision before the Board’s final action. The licensee has 30 days from the date of service of the Board’s final action to appeal to a court for judicial review.

Technical Professional Need Superior Representation

Representing yourself in matters where your livelihood and career are at stake can be costly. You should rely on competent counsel who a skilled at defending professional licensees like Kansas Professional Licensing Attorney Danielle Sanger. Attorney Sanger has the experience to protect your career and preserve your way of life. Call attorney Sanger today at 785-979-4353 to discuss your case and learn the difference passion and experience will make for you.