Professional Liability

There are many different behaviors that are considered as professional misconduct for physicians. The most common behaviors that are reported as misconduct fall under categories such as: negligence, incompetence, sexual abuse and fraud.   Professional misconduct is explored as it relates to physicians. The civil complaint process for the state of Florida helps patients to report suspected professional misconduct or incompetence, and investigate the regulatory agency that will be called upon to investigate such allegations.
Professional misconduct speaks to unprofessional behavior which embraces medical incompetence and ethical breach.   Examples of misconduct include sexual misconduct, felonies, financial conflicts of interest, overreaching advertising, gross incompetence, and other unethical behaviors (Tan, 2011).   The American Medical Association established the most comprehensive set of boundaries that govern ethical conduct of doctors.   This is a list of nine guidelines that involve all aspects of medical practice.   Among the disciplinary issues, the most common ones are substance abuse, gross medical negligence, sexual misconduct, and Medicare/Medicaid fraud.   Each state has its own special disciplinary boards to investigate and adjudicate written complaints.   These boards are guided by statues that define the extent of their authority (Tan, 2011).   The actions of the board can be appealed for both procedural and substantive review.   It is very unlikely that one act of malpractice will end up with a guilty charge of professional misconduct, on the other hand, many negligent acts will.   Medical wrongdoing can even build up to a crime where there is presence of criminal intent (Tan, 2011).   Even if initiated by the patient, physicians “are considered to be in the more powerful position in the relationship and therefore, responsible for even "consensual" boundary violations” (Crausman, 2004).
The mission of the Department of Health’s Division of Medical...