When the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) or Office of Professional Discpline (OPD) hear cases of alleged sexual assault or harassment, they take the burden of proof quite seriously. That is, the Board expects their investigation to uncover, or for the patient to otherwise supply, a sufficient amount of evidence demonstrating that such an incident occurred. Certain behaviors and actions you may adopt into your everyday practice of medicine may prevent any such proof from being collected against you. With that being said, please continue reading to learn how to avoid claims of sexual assault or harassment in your practice of medicine and how an experienced New York sexual misconduct lawyer at Walker Medical Law can step in should a case ever be made against you.
What constitutes sexual assault or harassment?
Generally speaking, sexual assault is defined as a crime of violence and aggression having to do with sexual activities such as sexual coercion, contact abuse, or otherwise. So, in a medical setting, sexual assault may be considered when a medical professional refuses to tell you why they are examining certain parts of your body or insists that you undress parts of your body they are not examining.
On the other hand, sexual harassment in the practice of medicine may be unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. With that, a patient may feel they are made the victim of such if their treating medical professional asks them questions about their sexual activity that make them uncomfortable and are otherwise irrelevant to the examination at hand.
How can I avoid claims of sexual assault or harassment in my medical practice?
Nonetheless, both sexual assault and sexual harassment are deemed to be serious violations of trust, medical ethics, and federal and state laws. Ultimately, it may result in a medical professional’s losing their licensure. To avoid this unfortunate fate, you must diligently follow safe practices during your interactions with patients. Such practices may include, but may not be limited to, the following:
- You should maintain an appropriate physical distance between yourself and your patient.
- You should communicate each part of the exam to your patient before and while it is happening.
- You should get informed consent from your patient before performing intimate examinations.
- You should always use gloves when performing intimate examinations on your patient.
- You should have a staff person of the same gender as your patient in the room during your examination.
- You should encourage your patient to express if something feels uncomfortable during your examination.
- You should thoroughly record everything that happened during your examination in your patient’s record.
If you have any outstanding questions yet to be answered, please ask one of the skilled OPMC/OPD misconduct defense lawyers. Anyone at Walker Medical Law can offer the support you need.
