Physician License Defense in the Seattle-Tacoma Area

Earning a medical license to work as a physician is one of the most prestigious and demanding career paths you can take. You’ve likely spent more than a decade of your life studying, training, and working long, tiring hours to become a doctor. Among the most basic tenets of working as a medical professional are giving your patients the best possible care and upholding high standards of integrity and professionalism. After everything you’ve done to get to this point, the last thing you want to face is any possible disciplinary action that could threaten your licensure. If you’re a physician working in the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area, you need to always be sure to abide by Washington state’s established protocols for practicing medicine.

As a licensed physician in the greater Seattle region, you’re serving one of the highest-population areas in the Pacific Northwest. While this gives you a large patient base, it also increases the likelihood that you’ll face some sort of complaint for either misconduct, substandard care, or administrative mistakes. The Washington Medical Commission oversees licensure of physicians in the state. The commission’s responsibilities include granting or denying medical licenses, establishing standards of professional conduct, investigating complaints and pursuing disciplinary action against physicians, and imposing penalties such as suspending or revoking licenses. Perhaps you’ve made a real medical error. Or maybe you’re simply guilty of an inadvertent paperwork oversight. Regardless of the severity of your mistake as a physician in the Puget Sound region, you can quickly find yourself in hot water with the Washington Medical Commission.

If you find yourself in trouble with the Washington Medical Commission and are facing a threat to your licensure as a physician, you need to take immediate action to defend yourself and protect your license. The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm has years of experience defending physicians in Washington state, including the greater Seattle-Tacoma area, against disciplinary actions. We know how to protect your rights and ensure the best possible outcome so that you can move forward in your career as a medical professional. Contact us at 888-535-3686 or complete our confidential contact form to learn more.

Practicing Medicine in the Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area

While the Washington Medical Commission oversees physician licensure state-wide, the Seattle-Tacoma region comprises the lion’s share of the state’s population. The greater Seattle area includes more than 5 million people. While Seattle proper is the region’s largest city, the Puget Sound region also includes major cities like Tacoma and Bellevue, as well as numerous suburbs such as Olympia, Bremerton, Mount Vernon, and Oak Harbor.

As a physician working in this huge metropolitan area, you have the opportunity to develop a solid professional reputation with one of the area’s major medical centers or private practices. But this diverse patient population also puts you at greater risk of facing complaints from patients, insurers, or fellow medical professionals. Maybe you work at one of the region’s big medical facilities, such as the University of Washington Medicine, the Virginia Mason Medical Center, Providence Health & Services, or Pacific Medical Centers (PacMed). Or maybe you’ve established yourself in a private practice with patients who return time and again over the years. Whether you work at a major hospital or a small doctor’s office, if a patient feels you’ve provided substandard care or acted in an offensive or unprofessional manner, the consequences can be severe and have a lasting effect on your medical career.

What Can Threaten Your Physician’s License in the Sea-Tac Area?

The Washington Medical Commission has extensive statutes governing physician licensure and practice. The Revised Code of Washington includes the state’s laws that apply to physicians in the greater Seattle metropolitan area. Included in these statutes are the many ways doctors can get in trouble and face disciplinary action—anything from medical malpractice to professional misconduct to recordkeeping mistakes. If you’re a physician in the Puget Sound region, the Washington Medical Commission can take action against you if you:

• Commit any act of moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption in your medical practice.
• Fraudulently bill a patient or insurance company.
• Abuse or neglect of a patient, including incompetence or malpractice that harms a patient or puts them at risk.
• Breach patient confidentiality.
• Practice medicine while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Keep inadequate or erroneous patient records.
• Falsify or misrepresent your license requirements.
• Fail to meet continuing education requirements.
• Prescribe excessive or unnecessary medication.
• Commit sexual misconduct with a patient or their families, including making inappropriate verbal or physical advances.
• Fail to meet the Washington Medical Commission’s standards of care.
• Participate in false, fraudulent, or misleading advertising.
• Practice with a suspended or revoked license, or help someone else practice without a license.
• Practice beyond the scope of your license.
• Promote any drugs, devices, treatments, procedures, or services for personal gain.
• Have a conviction of a felony or gross misdemeanor related to practicing medicine.

As you can see, the grounds for disciplinary action are widespread and often involve subjective behaviors. It’s easy to imagine how a disgruntled patient, or even a coworker or insurer, can file a complaint against you when they’ve simply misinterpreted your behavior or aren’t getting the health results they’ve hoped for. It’s possible you’ve legitimately made a serious mistake. It’s also possible that someone is trying to make you a scapegoat for their poor health. Whatever the case, the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help you navigate the disciplinary process and achieve the best possible outcome so you can continue practicing medicine in the Seattle-Tacoma area.

What Happens When You Face a Complaint in the Puget Sound Region?

The Washington Medical Commission has an extensive process for handling complaints against physicians in the greater Seattle area:

• Once the commission receives a complaint, a panel of commissioners will review the complaint to decide whether it has merit and meets the threshold for investigation. The commission has 21 days to make its initial decision.
• If the commission decides to dismiss the complaint, the person who made the complaint has 30 days to request that the commission reconsider their decision. The complainant must provide new information with this request.
• If the complaint proceeds to an investigation, the commission will assign an investigator to gather relevant medical records, interview the complainant, the doctor, and witnesses, and collect any additional evidence. During the investigation, the investigator works with staff attorneys who provide legal guidance throughout the disciplinary process. The commission generally allows 170 days for the investigation.
• Once the investigation is complete, the investigator writes a report and forwards it to the commission. The commission’s review panel will discuss the case and make a decision about whether the physician is guilty of unprofessional conduct. This legal team has 140 days to complete this process.
• The commission may decide to pursue formal charges. In this case, you have the right to a formal administrative hearing with a health law judge. During the hearing, you can present evidence and tell your side of the story.
• If the commission concludes that you engaged in unprofessional conduct, they can institute disciplinary action.
• A physician under disciplinary action enters the Compliance Monitoring Program, which is responsible for making sure you comply with penalties such as remediation, continuing education, evaluations, or rehabilitation.

Clearly, the entire disciplinary process can drag on for months. During this time, you may or may not be able to continue practicing. The commission has the authority to restrict or suspend your license during the investigation if they feel that you pose a risk to public safety. This restriction or suspension will remain in effect until the disciplinary proceedings finish.

Even if you can continue practicing during the disciplinary process, you’ll still be facing the stress and anxiety of dealing with the investigation and the commission’s impending decisions. The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm can help alleviate this stress by handling much of this process on your behalf.

What Penalties Can a Physician in the Seattle Area Face?

If the Washington Medical Commission concludes that you’ve committed an infraction of the regulations governing medical professionals in the state, they can impose a range of penalties that can have a long-term impact on your professional future.

Potential penalties include:

• A Stipulation to Informal Discipline (STID). If you agree to this, you don’t have to admit wrongdoing, but you’ll have to complete some type of corrective action, such as taking a certain course or submitting to monitoring of your practice.
• Fines and recovery costs.
• Additional training or educational courses related to your misconduct.
• Conditions or limitations on your license.
• Suspension or revocation of your license.

Once you become part of the Compliance Monitoring Program, you may also be subject to periodic practice reviews, where commission staff visit your practice, review medical records relevant to your case, and interview you and your co-workers.

All of these penalties are subject to public disclosure. This means that whether you settle on an STID or face a final order from the commission that affects your licensure, it will become part of the public record. The penalties can then follow you throughout your career, available to potential employers and patients.

Turn to the LLF National Law Firm to Get You Through This Ordeal

If you find out that someone has filed a complaint against you, it’s natural to immediately feel defensive and want to declare your innocence. But it’s in your best interest to deal with the Washington Medical Commission in a calm, professional manner. Easier said than done. Your expertise lies in understanding and treating medical conditions and providing patient care to people throughout the Seattle-Tacoma area. Working your way through an administrative or legal bureaucracy will surely feel overwhelming.

That’s where the Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm comes in. Before you do anything else, you should arm yourself with an established and successful legal team that can help you through the disciplinary process. Even if you’ve already started corresponding with the commission and are trying to muddle your way through, it’s not too late for the LLF National Law Firm to step in and take over your defense.

We can help you through each step of the disciplinary process. We understand the best ways to communicate with medical regulatory boards. We know how to mitigate hostility, reduce aggressive or retaliatory behavior, and negotiate for constructive outcomes that satisfy everyone involved. We can help you:

• Understand the allegations against you and how they violate specific statutes of the Revised Code of Washington.
• Identify and gather the evidence that best supports your case.
• Highlight your side of the story to address and defend against the specific regulations in question.
• Communicate with the commission’s staff attorneys to navigate the disciplinary process on your behalf.
• Work with the commission to reach a fair agreement before the case progresses to a hearing.
• Represent you at a hearing, including presenting arguments and questioning witnesses.
• Advocate for the most lenient penalties.
• Make sure the Washington Medical Commission adheres to disciplinary protocols and doesn’t violate your rights.
• Do everything possible to defend your license to continue practicing medicine in the greater Seattle metropolitan area.

Working as a physician is more than just a job. It’s a lifelong commitment to helping other people. You’ve spent countless hours earning your physician’s license, building your practice, learning how to diagnose and treat a vast array of conditions, and working with patients to help them improve their health. You’ve come too far to let a complaint derail your career.

Whether you’ve made a real misstep or are facing false or exaggerated accusations, you need to do everything you can to overcome and learn from your mistakes and continue moving forward in your medical career. No matter where you practice across the Sea-Tac area or what kind of medicine you specialize in, the consequences of disciplinary action can have a lasting impact on your career. The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm can help you make it through the trying ordeal of a disciplinary process. We’ll protect your rights and help you walk away with the most successful outcome possible. Call us at 888-535-3686 or complete our online contact form to schedule a consultation and get started.