Discipline, Grounds for Sanction, and the Disciplinary Process
This domain covers what gets a DC licensee disciplined and how the case travels from complaint to final order. Items ask you to identify a ground, predict the next procedural step, or recognize a sanction.
Grounds for discipline
The Act's grounds include fraud or deceit in obtaining or renewing a license; incompetence or negligence; practicing beyond scope; unprofessional conduct; practicing while impaired; conviction of a crime bearing on fitness to practice; disciplinary action taken in another jurisdiction; failure to meet continuing education requirements; aiding unlicensed practice; and failing to cooperate with an investigation.
The process
Anyone may complain - a patient, an employer, another clinician, or the Board itself. DC Health screens and investigates; the Board reviews and, where warranted, issues a notice of charges. Contested cases proceed to an administrative hearing, with a proposed decision returned to the Board for a final order. Sanctions may be appealed to the DC Court of Appeals. Where there is imminent risk to the public, summary action can suspend practice pending a full hearing.
Sanctions
Reprimand or censure; probation with conditions; mandated continuing education or supervision; civil fines; suspension; revocation; restitution; cease-and-desist orders against unlicensed practice.
Worked example
A PT's Maryland license was suspended for falsifying treatment minutes. She does not notify the DC Board. When the Board learns of it, the Maryland finding is evidence of unprofessional conduct, the failure to disclose is a separate violation, and the DC case proceeds independently of what Maryland decided. Her argument that "it happened in another state" fails on both counts.
Traps
Assuming discipline requires a patient complaint; assuming a single incident is too minor to sanction; ignoring a Board letter or subpoena, when noncooperation is itself a ground; assuming an expunged conviction cannot be considered, when the underlying conduct can be; treating a stayed suspension as no discipline at all.