The Office of Professional Discipline (OPD) operates under the New York State Education Department (NYSED), within the Office of Professions. To put it simply, this Office plays a critical part in maintaining the integrity of licensed professionals that deal with public health and safety throughout the state, namely in medicine, nursing, and psychology. All of this to say, if you get contacted by the OPD at some point in your professional career, it is not necessarily a good thing. With that, please read on to discover more about the OPD’s role in your professional license’s validity, and how one of the seasoned New York City OPMC/OPD misconduct defense lawyers at Walker Medical Law can help secure your right to practice.
What role does the OPD play in my professional license?
Primarily, the OPD is charged with investigating and prosecuting cases of professional misconduct involving licensed professionals in New York State. They oversee more than 50 types of licensed professionals, including nurses, physical therapists, pharmacists, dentists, psychologists, and social workers.
This is while the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) looks over physicians, physician assistants, and specialist assistants. But at the end of the day, these Offices may control professional licenses all the same. They may even coordinate a unified disciplinary approach if a case involves both non-clinical and clinical misconduct.
That is, once the OPD investigates and prosecutes your professional misconduct complaint, they may take their evidence to the Board of Regents. This Board ultimately determines your disciplinary action. This action may just be to either temporarily suspend or permanently revoke your professional license.
What types of complaints does the OPD respond to?
The OPD uses New York Education Law’s definition of what constitutes professional misconduct to determine which complaints they should dismiss and which they should respond to with an investigation, hearing, and potential disciplinary action. And so, under this legal definition, they may pursue the latter route for any of the following types of complaints:
- A complaint was made over a licensed professional practicing with negligence or incompetence.
- A complaint was made over a licensed professional acting fraudulently or deceptively while practicing.
- A complaint was made over a licensed professional making an unauthorized disclosure of their patient’s information.
- A complaint was made over a licensed professional having a substance abuse issue that affects their ability to practice safely.
- A complaint was made over a licensed professional violating certain professional ethical standards or state regulations.
When it comes to your medical misconduct defense, you should not settle for anything less than spectacular legal representation. So please hire us to help with your investigation and hearing processes. One of the competent New York City OPMC/OPD misconduct defense lawyers at Walker Medical Law looks forward to working with you.
