Physician regulatory risk is the practice of handling licensing complaints brought against a provider or licensee. Issues stem from treatment-related matters below the standard of care, which becomes a claim of malpractice and is a consequence of assault on a patient.
Examples are varied. This list shows the types of complaints our firm deals with:
- Drug diversion (stealing, tampering with, or improperly using controlled substances).
- Substance use disorder affecting practice (alcohol, opioids, stimulants, marijuana, etc.).
- Practicing while impaired.
- Inappropriate prescribing of controlled substances (opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulants).
- Failure to properly monitor controlled-substance patients.
- Inadequate documentation or recordkeeping.
- Failure to meet the standard of care in diagnosis.
- Failure to meet the standard of care in treatment.
- Medication errors causing patient harm.
- Failure to assess, monitor, or respond to a deteriorating patient.
- Boundary violations with patients.
- Sexual misconduct involving patients.
- Inappropriate communications with patients (texts, social media, personal relationships).
- Patient confidentiality and HIPAA violations.
- Fraudulent charting or falsification of medical records.
- Billing fraud or insurance fraud.
- False statements on a license application, renewal, or credentialing form.
- Failure to disclose prior discipline, criminal charges, or adverse actions.
- Criminal conduct unrelated to patient care (DUI, assault, theft, domestic violence, etc.).
- Failure to supervise nurses, physician assistants, residents, or other staff appropriately.
- Practicing outside the scope of licensure.
- Unlicensed practice or aiding unlicensed practice.
- Failure to obtain informed consent.
- Patient abandonment.
- Failure to follow up on critical test results.
- Failure to maintain professional boundaries with colleagues or staff (harassment, intimidation, workplace misconduct).
- Disruptive physician or nurse behavior affecting patient safety.
- Infection-control violations or unsafe clinical practices.
- Failure to report another provider’s misconduct when required by law or regulation.
- Failure to comply with a board order, consent agreement, monitoring agreement, or continuing education requirement.
There are also some additional categories that are extremely common in certain specialties. These include:
- Cosmetic procedure complications and informed-consent issues.
- Telemedicine violations.
- Improper delegation to medical assistants or unlicensed personnel.
- Prescription forgery or self-prescribing.
- Social media professionalism complaints.
- Improper termination of the provider-patient relationship.
- Peer-review findings reported to the board.
- Mandatory reporting failures involving abuse, neglect, or vulnerable adults.
- Diversion of workplace medications by nurses.
- Documentation discrepancies involving controlled substances.
For more information, please contact us.
