Whether you are a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, or physical therapist, your license is critical to your livelihood. While it took you years to attain your license, it can be taken from you in an instant because of a simple mistake or lapse of judgment.

As an experienced licensing attorney, clients often ask what are the most common ways that they can lose their professional license. Before I get into those individual ways, I must stress that if you find yourself being investigated, there is no time to waste, contact a professional licensing attorney immediately. The following are the five of the most commonly seen ways that medical professionals lose their licenses:

1. Abusing Controlled Substances or Alcohol

A number of factors lead to medical professionals abusing medications and alcohol.  Often it is a combination of a high-stress career, access to pharmaceuticals, and a level of comfort with administering them. It is not always drugs, however, as alcohol abuse is also a prevalent way for professionals to deal with stress or problems. All it takes is a DUI or a complaint from coworkers to result in a referral to an administrative board and investigation into your behavior.

2. Committing Fraud

With the complex billing practices and medical data entry required in the modern medical office, many professionals believe that charging or entering codes for procedures they did not perform will go unchecked. That is a mistake. Healthcare is a multi-billion dollar industry, and there are sophisticated controls built into the billing system.  Professionals may not be investigated the first time they enter a false code, but find themselves under scrutiny after making a serious of fraudulent entries.

3. Violations of Professional Ethics

Medicine is a profession filled with redundant forms and checklists created to make sure that patients’ wishes are followed and that medical procedures are performed safely. Given the time pressure medical professionals sometimes find themselves under, some unfortunately resort to forging either patients’ or providers’ signatures or filling out checklists falsely.

4. Improper Dispensing of Medication

Dispensing and prescribing medication is complex. When medications are prescribed or dispensed to patients that should not take them because of an allergy or known reaction to another prescribed medication, there can be dramatic results, including death. Sloppy administration of medications can be caused by overwork, stress, or burnout. Some patients seek out medications they should not have because they have become addicted to them; too often, medical professionals continue to provide medications to addicts who offer extra payment for them. Whether out of sympathy or greed, providing extra medications to drug-seeking patients is illegal and never wise.

5. Discrimination.

Engaging in discrimination against patients, treating them differently based on their age, sex, race, citizenship or other “protected class” status is illegal. A complaint that you have differentiated in how you provide medical treatment to those individuals can result in an investigation and suspension or loss of your license. Careful documentation of your fair treatment of individuals is your best defense to a claim that you have treated some differently than others.

As this list demonstrates, professionals with good intentions can make honest or inadvertent mistakes. Otherwise good people can also have lapses of judgment due to work or financial pressure.  But these mistakes do not have to cost you your career.

Call attorney Sanger today at (785)-979-4353 to protect your professional license.

Contact Kansas Professional Liability Defense Attorney Danielle Sanger to protect your license and career. If you are being investigated for a workplace mistake or misconduct, call her immediately. Attorney Danielle Sanger has the experience to deal with licensing bodies, appear before administrative boards, and provide clients with advice to best position themselves professionally.

 

Kansas dental assistants must ensure patients are being treated in a sterile environment.  Even the smallest mistakes, such as forgetting to throw something away after a patient has been seen, can result in the spread of infections to subsequent patients.  When this occurs, both dental assistants and the dentists supervising them may be at risk for either disciplinary action or the loss of their professional licenses or certificates.  If you are a Kansas dental assistant, you should take all necessary steps to ensure there is very little or no chance of spreading bacteria and other germs to patients that may result in serious illness.

Common Mistakes That Create an Unsterile Environment

When dental offices get busy, it is inevitable that mistakes will be made.  Most mistakes are not uncommon and curable, meaning that they do not cause any harm to patients or the dental staff.  However, some common mistakes are capable of causing patients to suffer injury or illness.  Such mistakes include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Failing to put biomedical waste in the designated biohazard container;
• Failing to put dental instruments into sterilizing machine after they are used on a patient;
• Failing to clean the examination room with sterilizing cleaner after treating a patient;
• Failing to use new, sterilized dental equipment;
• Failing to change gloves, masks, plastic coverings, and paper bibs after treating a patient;
• Failing to discard the above-mentioned items before leaving the examination room; and
• Failing to wash hands and use sterilizing gel or lotion.

It is understandable that some of the above-mentioned mistakes happen occasionally in all dental offices.  After such mistakes occur, dental offices typically avoid the same mistakes in the future by ensuring all dentists, dental assistants and other dental employees are properly trained on sanitation practices.  Germs spread much easier than many people believe.  The transmission of bacterial and viral infections can cause numerous patients to become ill, and those patients may spread the infection to others.  If the illness is severe, the dentist and his or her dental staff may be held responsible and could face disciplinary action of the potential loss of their professional licenses or certificates pursuant to the Kansas Dental Board’s decision.

Proper Training Goes a Long Way

Because most people believe it is common sense to wash your hands and ensure an examination room is clean after each patient is seen, many dental offices do not train dental assistants about proper sanitation practices.  While dental assistants learn about sanitation practices while going to school to obtain their certificates, it is never a bad idea to ensure dental assistants are absolutely clear on the importance of proper sanitation practices.  Dental offices that require new hire training that covers sanitation practices are less likely to experience the common mistakes that could lead to potentially harmful consequences for patients.

Contact Danielle Sanger of the Sanger Law Office Today to Schedule Your Free Consultation

As a Kansas dental assistant, you already know how important it is to operate in a sterile environment.  However, mistakes do happen, and you do not deserve to lose your professional license or certificate over one mistake.  If you are facing disciplinary action by the Kansas Dental Board, or potentially the loss of your license or certificate, either temporarily or permanently, it is important that you speak with an experienced Kansas Professional License Defense Attorney as soon as possible.  Kansas Professional License Defense Attorney Danielle Sanger of the Sanger Law Office devotes her law practice to helping professionals like you fight to keep their Kansas professional licenses and certificates.  As a former Assistant Attorney General of Kansas, Danielle Sanger has the experience and skill necessary to provide you with the representation you deserve.  To speak with Danielle Sanger about your case, contact the Sanger Law Office today by calling (785) 979-4353 to schedule your free consultation.

There are a multitude of dental procedures that require patients to be sedated, whether it be full general anesthesia, or minimal sedation that leaves a patient in a “twilight” state.  Some patients may simply want to be sedated for simple fears that make it difficult for them to receive standard dental care.  Whatever the reason may be for sedation, it is important that dentists protect themselves when offering sedation services to patients.

Dentists can protect themselves by ensuring that their patients are good candidates for sedation prior to administering any sedative medication. However, not every patient should be sedated, due to the nature of their medical condition or other important factors.  Some patients may have underlying health problems that make sedation particularly dangerous, such as chronic high blood pressure, a history of heart attacks or strokes, or any other chronic and/or serious health condition.  If it turns out a patient cannot safely be sedated, then a dentist should inform the patient of this information and refuse to sedate that patient.

There have been situations across the United States where dentists have performed sedation dentistry without first ensuring the patients are healthy and stable enough to handle the sedative medications.  Many dental practices advertise that they offer “sedation dentistry,” and this catches the attention of many patients who have trouble sitting still or simply are afraid to receive certain dental care.  Such dental practices can be beneficial for many patients who qualify as good candidates, but there are many people who simply should not be subject to sedation if they are not healthy enough.

 What You Should Do to Avoid Disciplinary Action

If you offer sedation dentistry at your Kansas dental practice, you should make sure your current protocols protect both you and your patients from the potential hazards of sedation dentistry.  You should thoroughly evaluate every patient, and request a patient’s primary medical records (with the patient’s consent), to confirm whether or not there are any current health concerns that may pose a risk of harm to the patient if sedation is given.  Further, as a Kansas dentist offering sedation dentistry, you should require that your patients undergo general testing with another physician to ensure they are healthy enough to be sedated.

As long as you document your efforts to ensure your patients are healthy enough to receive sedative medications while undergoing dental procedures, you should be protected in the future if a patient claims he or she suffered harm as a result of undergoing sedation in your dental office.  By reviewing a patient’s medical records and ensuring the patient has undergone the requisite testing, you are being a responsible Kansas dentist and looking out for the health and well-being of your patients.  While problems with sedation dentistry are not prevalent, they do happen, and you should always be prepared in the event a patient becomes ill or alleges to suffer harm as a result of being sedated while at your dental office.

Contact the Sanger Law Office Today to Schedule a Free Consultation

If you are a Kansas dentist and your license is at risk, it is essential that you consider speaking with a Kansas professional license defense attorney as soon as possible.  Danielle Sanger of the Sanger Law Office defends her clients to the fullest extent possible, helping them keep their professional licenses.  With her prior experience as Assistant Attorney General of Kansas, Danielle Sanger knows what to expect from all Kansas professional licensing boards. Kansas Professional Liability Defense Attorney Danielle Sanger also has the skill and dedication necessary to provide the best representation possible when fighting the potential loss of your professional license.  To schedule your free consultation with Danielle Sanger, contact the Sanger Law Office by calling (785) 979-4353.