Driving While Intoxicated

Even though the police pulled you over while you were not treating patients, if you plead to even a misdemeanor, that will be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, also known as your permanent professional report card. If you have been either found guilty by a jury or admitted your guilt in a plea bargain, you cannot argue your innocence to the licensing board, it is a done deal. At best, you can demonstrate mitigating factors. These would include your stellar community service and charity work. Perhaps you have subsequently enrolled in AA or taken some kind of course concerning drinking and driving. You can still be disciplined even though not one patient of yours was harmed; you broke the law. The scenario would be similar for illicit drug use and other crimes.

Courtesy of Frier Levitt, Attorneys at Law