A physician client came to Ray & Bishop, PLC, after receiving a Statement of Issues from the California Medical Board alleging that the client had a history of substance abuse and mental health concerns.  The California Medical Board obtained the client’s medical history, and using the medical records from prior hospitals, alleged that the client demonstrated Unprofessional Conduct, Impairment, and Excessive Alcohol Use, under Business and Professions Code sections 2221 and 2234.  The Medical…

Out-of-state discipline is a common basis for California license discipline, under the applicable statutes that allow the Board of Registered Nursing to seek collateral discipline against a licensee who is disciplined or censured by another state’s licensing entity (even when the licensing entity is not necessarily a nursing board). In this case, our client was disciplined four years prior by the New York board of nursing and required to complete probation in that state. Instead,…

In a recent contested case against the Physical Therapy Board applicant, the Board’s attorneys insisted that because a ten-year-old theft conviction was not properly disclosed on an application for licensure, our prospective Physical Therapy Aide client did not deserve a license at all. After an administrative hearing where the facts and circumstances of the conviction and the disclosure were discussed in detail, the Administrative Law Judge granted the client an unrestricted license and dismissed the…

The Board of Registered Nursing sometimes pursues discipline against nurses whose incompetence gravely threatens the health and welfare of the California public. At other times, they pursue discipline against nurses like our client, who was placed on probation in 2016, but failed to realize she was on probation for the first two weeks. Instead of working out the problem and attempting to discern why the mistake took place, the Board elected to file a Petition…

Part of effective license advocacy is realizing that licensed professional work is often done, and done very well, by imperfect people who make mistakes. In this case, our client had been punished severely by the criminal justice system for two occasions where he resorted to corporal punishment with one of his children. However, as a licensed contractor, he used his experience and training as an industrial electrician to provide for his family and serve the…

One of our registered nursing clients suffered a panic attack during an episode of post-partum depression.  Her husband phoned the police to help deescalate the conflict, but it unfortunately led to her arrest on suspicion of domestic violence.  Although the charges were dropped, our client was questioned by the Board, given employment releases to sign, brought into an investigational interview, and even subjected to a mandatory mental health examination under Business and Professions Code section…

Our registered nurse client was accused of physically assaulting a patient and verbally abusing him while on duty at the client’s hospital.  The problem?  The only evidence of the so-called “assault” came from the patient, who had a history of psychosis and whose complaint was authored by another RN.  No other witnesses had anything negative to say about our client either on the date of the incident or anytime before.  The Board of Registered Nursing…