You may feel embarrassed to know that your reputation is being tainted by a medical misconduct complaint made against you. But what may make matters worse is that you may have to carry this reputation for the rest of your professional career. Read on to discover whether your incident of medical misconduct may become a public record and how one of the seasoned New York physician defense lawyers at Walker Medical Law can prevent this from happening.
Will my incident of medical misconduct become a public record?
For starters, your patient, your colleague, or the health facility that employs you may have filed a medical misconduct complaint with the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) or Office of Professional Discipline (OPD). This may have been followed by an investigation, hearing, and ruling against you.
Therefore, you must understand that, after you undergo these proceedings for your alleged incident of medical misconduct, it may become a part of the public record. That is, the OPMC’s or OPD’s final decision on the matter (i.e., a guilty verdict) and the disciplinary actions it placed against you because of it may be recorded publicly. However, if the OPMC or OPD closed the complaint or dismissed the case made against you (i.e., a not guilty verdict), it will not make it a public record. This means that ongoing investigations against you will not be disclosed.
What are the consequences when this information becomes a public record?
When saying that your medical misconduct incident becomes a public record, this means that your guilty verdict will be disclosed on your New York State physician profile. This is because the primary purpose of this database is to allow the public to review information about all licensed medical professionals registered to practice in New York State. In other words, this may let a prospective patient make an informed decision on who they wish to treat them. Or, this may allow a patient to become informed on who they are actively receiving treatment from.
With all that being said, even after you get your medical license reinstated, you may struggle with receiving new patients who are willing and able to look past this mistake you made. All the while, you may have to refer your current patients, who no longer wish to be under your direct care, to other medical professionals in the area.
You must also know that the OPMC or OPD may voluntarily report your incident to the Federation of State Medical Boards’ Physician Data Center. This may mean that even if you move to another state or territory to practice medicine, your incident in New York State may still follow you.
In conclusion, there is no better time than the present to act. So please reach out to one of the competent New York physician defense lawyers at Walker Medical Law at your earliest possible convenience.
