Obtaining a California respiratory care practitioner license requires lengthy education, training, and hard work. Despite your efforts to obtain your permit, some patients will be unhappy with your services, mainly when they do not attain the expected outcome. Unfortunately, a minor or exaggerated allegation from such a patient could destroy your career.

Therefore, when you learn of an accusation or investigation for alleged misconduct in your professional roles or qualifications that threatens your respiratory therapy permit, you must seek the assistance of an experienced license defense attorney. At San Bernardino License Attorney, we can help you fight the allegations to enable you to continue practicing lawfully.

The California Department of Consumer Affairs Respiratory Care Board Mission

The California Respiratory Care Board aims to ensure that the demand for respiratory therapists is met and that the public understands the invaluable roles of these healthcare professionals. The board also develops and maintains high standards in the medical field by creating education programs that ensure respiratory therapists acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to provide safe and standard services to the public.

After you have been through the board’s education and training program, the organization grants you a respiratory therapy license if it is sure you will uphold the industry’s high standards. Their responsibility does not end after licensure. They monitor your practice to ensure you do not violate their guidelines. They do all this to protect the public from substandard and unsafe respiratory care services.

From this information, you can deduce that the licensing organization’s primary role is safeguarding the public and not supporting you as a practitioner. They use their mandate or authority to restrict licensure only to qualified professionals. After licensure, those who engage in misconduct or violate the board’s guidelines are issued with citations and reprimands, which can be private or public. Additionally, when you involve yourself in more severe violations, the board can suspend the license, meaning withdrawing it for a given duration. Alternatively, it can revoke the permit, which means canceling it indefinitely. As the licensing and regulating agency, the body enforces all laws relating to the practice.

Therefore, when the organization receives a complaint about your practice, your license is at risk if they establish that you violated one of the laws regulating your practice. The threat your license faces depends on your case's aggravating and mitigating circumstances. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) evaluates these factors and recommends the appropriate punishment to the licensing organization. The board then considers the report and decides whether to adopt or reject the ALJ’s suggestions.

The ALJ relies on the respiratory care board's disciplinary guidelines to handle administrative hearings and prepare reports on the various accusations practitioners face.

These guidelines divide violations into two classes: major breaches and minor breaches. The board imposes disciplinary measures for each category if the accusations are sustained in the administrative proceeding.

A violation is considered major or significant if it threatens to injure a patient, the public, or the practitioner. A breach that can injure you, the therapist, or the general public is deemed significant. Examples of substantial violations include:

  • Failure to agree to random chemical or drug testing
  • Handling patients while impaired by drugs or alcohol
  • Cheating or utilizing deceit on a substance test

Additionally, when the board keeps your license revocation and places you on probation, a breach of the probationary terms amounts to a significant violation of the licensing agency’s guidelines.

Any breach that the board categorizes as major endangers public safety. Therefore, because the agency’s primary mission is to safeguard the consumers of your respiratory care services, the agency orders that you immediately stop practicing by revoking or suspending your license if found guilty of a significant violation.

In some violation, the agency will place the license under interim suspension pending deliberation and determination of your case. An interim suspension can be devastating because, in the first place, the licensing body has not yet declared you guilty. Additionally, your practice will be hurt by the temporary suspension if the board is slow with its investigation and decision. If these go on for an extended duration, it means months or years of not practicing when a decision has not been made on whether or not you are guilty. Talk to an experienced license attorney if the board temporarily withdraws your license pending investigation and deliberation to convince the board to lift the suspension to enable you to continue your practice.

In contrast, minor breaches do not endanger your life, the lives of your patients, or the public or inflict injuries. For instance, a violation of minor probationary terms that does not endanger a patient’s safety or only happens once qualifies as a minor breach. Minor breaches do not attract severe disciplinary measures. However, a repeat violation is harshly punished.

A standard disciplinary action you can face for a minor breach is a citation. Even if it is lenient punishment, its consequences can be severe if it goes into your professional records. The information becomes public and could dent your reputation. Prospective employers or clients will see the record, hurting your business or chances of securing employment. Other times, a citation will be expensive as it comes with a colossal fine that could dent your finances. So, even if you engage in a minor breach, you should give it proper attention by hiring an attorney. If the licensing organization imposes lenient disciplinary measures like a citation, it could hurt your practice as it appears on your record, hence the need to fight the allegations aggressively.

Before any disciplinary action, lenient or severe, is imposed for a violation, the licensing agency gives you the chance to challenge the accusations. Thankfully, with an experienced license defense lawyer, you can defeat your accusations and continue practicing respiratory therapy. Besides, a successful defense means the violation will not go into your professional record, thus preserving your image and reputation.

Valuable Roles of Respiratory Therapists

Your responsibilities as a respiratory therapist are to assist your patients in addressing their breathing problems. You also operate ventilators and respirators that help patients stay alive when they face breathing issues.

Whatever location you are working from, home-based care, medical facility, or business, your services are pivotal in saving patients' lives, and a small mistake could cost a person’s life. Patients of all ages, including infants and senior citizens, can experience breathing difficulties, meaning anybody could require your services.

Chronic conditions like asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are on the rise, increasing the need for your services. People who sustain traumatic injuries from accidents and those recovering from heart conditions or stroke also require your services. Patients suffering from sleep apnea can also benefit from your expertise. However, you must be careful when handling patients with these conditions because, most of the time, the poor quality of life makes them easily irritable and frustrated. As a result, a small disagreement or unmet expectations can become an exaggerated or unfounded accusation that could be detrimental to your career or practice.

In this healthcare profession, your roles are as diverse as the patients you handle daily, and they include:

  • Offering patients life support by placing them on mechanical ventilation, conducting required tests, diagnosis, and patient monitoring
  • Recording vital signs of patients
  • Monitoring artificial airways like tracheostomies
  • Treating chronic respiratory issues like COPD and asthma
  • Administering aerosol medicine
  • Helping patients with rehabilitation and educating them
  • Monitoring patients’ response to treatment
  • Drawing blood samples from patients for various diagnostic tests like oxygen levels
  • Reviewing x-ray and sample test results
  • Establishing the level of impairment of a patient’s lungs
  • Creating awareness of asthma
  • Spearheading campaigns against smoking

Your roles are demanding because you make life-and-death decisions daily. Therefore, in the line of duty, you risk making small mistakes that could injure patients or cause loss of life. You risk lawsuits, criminal accusations, or complaints being filed against you because of your daily decisions.

Unfortunately, most of these complaints arise from unfair or unmet expectations from your respiratory patients or their families. However, a complaint or lawsuit should not end your career. You can contest the accusations and show that no board rule violations occurred.

Circumstances in Aggravation or Mitigation of The Board’s Disciplinary Measures

Your defense attorney understands the challenges you have been through and how trying your career is. They also know that the nature of your profession exposes you to complaints even when you are not in the wrong. Therefore, they will work tirelessly to contest and defeat the allegations. The licensing organization can dismiss your accusations as baseless when you share your story.

Nonetheless, not all accusations end up with a case dismissal or without disciplinary measures. Sometimes, the evidence against you will be so solid that it is impossible to avoid punishment, even with the best legal representation. In these situations, a favorable result is receiving a lesser penalty than you should obtain for your violation or misconduct. Lenient discipline does not come quickly. Your attorney must present mitigating factors to show the ALJ that even if you violated the board’s guidelines, you have taken particular actions to fix your previous situations and should not receive severe disciplinary action.  

Lenient punishment means that instead of receiving a license cancellation or revocation, the board can stay the decision and instead put you under a probation program. License probation is also a form of punishment, but it is less severe than a revocation because it allows you to continue practicing but under strict probationary terms. After the board agrees to stay a permit revocation, the attorney can further present mitigating factors to compel them to reduce the probationary time. With a shorter probationary period, it is easier to comply with the strict conditions than when the duration is prolonged. Therefore, a shorter probationary period is also a win.

After a reduced probationary term, you can further convince the board through mitigating circumstances to impose less stringent conditions. You can persuade them to reduce the monetary fine you will pay to avoid financial strain. These conditions are better than a revocation, which ultimately ends your career.

You need an attorney with excellent negotiation skills to negotiate a settlement before the cases reach the ALJ. The right attorney will also fight a citation issued against you or any other punishment imposed. If the appeal is filed within the right time and successful, you can save your reputation and career by preventing any form of discipline from the board.

The ALJ listens to the opposing sides during the administrative proceedings. However, even though they adjudicate the matter, they follow the licensing organization’s disciplinary guidelines. Further, the judge considers mitigating and aggravating aspects of the case when preparing the report to present to the board for adoption.

The aggravating circumstances the judge considers and which affect the outcome of your case include:

  • Any actual injuries or harm obtained by the patient
  • Any possibility or potential of the victim suffering harm or damage
  • If there was a breach of the boss’s or patient’s trust
  • If you have a history of misconduct or violation
  • A pattern of engaging in the same breach as the current one
  • If you engaged in the misconduct in the presence of a child
  • If you have a felony or misdemeanor guilty verdict for an offense substantially relating to your professional duties

Mitigating circumstances in the complaint are:

  • Recognition of your mistakes
  • Demonstrating you have taken corrective steps to prevent the recurrence of the violation
  • Lack of previous criminal or disciplinary history
  • You reported yourself to the licensing body after the violation
  • You have undertaken measures to rehab
  • Your wrongdoing hurt nobody, and the chances of a recurrence are minimal

Your attorney is not unfamiliar with presenting evidence in administrative hearings or the processes. They will build a strong argument to compel the ALJ to drop the accusations as they are baseless.

An attorney is beneficial when you are in trouble with the respiratory care licensing agency and will come in handy during your license application if rejected. The lawyer will evaluate the rejected application to find errors that could have led to an unfavorable decision. Afterward, they will help you reapply but ensure you satisfy all conditions for a successful process.

Find a Competent Respiratory Therapy License Defense Attorney Near Me

Obtaining a respiratory care practitioner license is a lengthy and complex process involving education and training. Unfortunately, you can do all the hard work through school and pay the licensing fees. However, your application is denied because of a criminal record or failure to satisfy other conditions. You can reapply or contest the board’s verdict and secure a license. Nevertheless, you could quickly lose the permit even after licensing because of a minor complaint.

At San Bernardino License Attorney, we can help protect your respiratory therapy license to enable you to continue saving lives. Call us at 909-966-4095 to arrange a no-obligation consultation.