Other Health Related Professional Licenses

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Physicians

68 IAC 1285.240 – Standards

Dishonorable, Unethical or Unprofessional Conduct

In determining what constitutes dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct of a character likely to deceive, defraud or harm the public, the Disciplinary Board shall consider whether the questioned activities:

  • Are violative of ethical standards of the profession (such as safeguard patient confidence and records within the constraints of law; respect the rights of patients, colleagues and other health professionals; observe laws under the Act and pertaining to any relevant specialty; to provide service with compassion and respect for human dignity);
  • Constitute a breach of the physician’s responsibility to a patient;
  • Resulted in assumption by the physician of responsibility for delivery of patient care that the physician was not properly qualified or competent to render;
  • Resulted in a delegation of responsibility for delivery of patient care to persons who were not properly supervised or who were not competent to assume such responsibility;
  • Caused actual harm to any member of the public; or
  • Are reasonably likely to cause harm to any member of the public in the future.

Questionable activities include, but are not limited to:

  • Being convicted of any crime an essential element of which is larceny, embezzlement, obtaining money, property or credit by false pretenses or by means of a confidence game, dishonesty, fraud, misstatement or moral turpitude;
  • Delegating patient care responsibility to any individual when the physician has reason to believe that the person may not be competent;
  • Misrepresenting educational background, training, credentials, competence, or medical staff memberships;
  • Failing to properly supervise subordinate health professional and paraprofessional staff under the licensee’s supervision and control in patient care responsibilities; or
  • Committing of any other act or omission that breaches the physician’s responsibility to a patient according to accepted medical standards of practice.

Immoral Conduct

Immoral conduct in the commission of any act related to the licensee’s practice means conduct that:

  • Demonstrates moral indifference to the opinions of the good and respectable members of the profession;
  • Is inimical to the public welfare;
  • Abuses the physician/patient relationship by taking unfair advantage of a patient’s vulnerability; and
  • Is committed in the course of the practice of medicine.

In determining immoral conduct in the commission of any act related to the licensee’s practice, the Disciplinary Board shall consider, but not be limited to, the following standards:

  • Taking advantage of a patient’s vulnerability by committing an act that violates established codes of professional behavior expected on the part of a physician;
  • Unethical conduct with a patient that results in the patient engaging in unwanted personal, financial or sexual relationships with the physician;
  • Conducting human experimentation or utilizing unproven drugs, medicine, surgery or equipment to treat patients, except as authorized for use in an approved research program pursuant to rules of the Illinois Department of Public Health authorizing research programs (77 Ill. Adm. Code 250.130) or as otherwise expressly authorized by law;
  • Committing an act, in the practice of persons licensed under the Act, of a flagrant, glaringly obvious nature, that constitutes conduct of such a distasteful nature that accepted codes of behavior or codes of ethics are breached;
  • Committing an act in a relationship with a patient so as to violate common standards of decency or propriety; or
  • Any other behavior that violates established codes of physician behavior or that violates established ethical principles commonly associated with the practice of medicine.

In determining what constitutes gross negligence, the Disciplinary Board shall consider gross negligence to be an act or omission that is evidence of recklessness or carelessness toward or a disregard for the safety or well-being of the patient, and that results in injury to the patient.

(Source: Amended at 29 Ill. Reg. 18823, effective November 4, 2005)

Chiropractors

68 IAC 1285.30 – Programs of Chiropractic Education

a) A program of chiropractic education shall be deemed approved in the judgment of the Division if it meets the following requirements:

1. a Dean or other Executive Officer, employed on a full-time basis supervises the students and curriculum.

2. the faculty is comprised of graduates in their specialty from legally recognized and authorized professional colleges or institutions by the jurisdiction in which the college is located.

3. the faculty is organized and each department has a director and professors, each responsible to the director for instruction in the particular subjects he or she teaches.

4. annually, a catalogue or brochure is published setting forth the requisites for admission to the college, tuition, rates, courses offered, dates of sessions, schedule of classes, requirements for graduation, a roster of the undergraduate students and a roster of the last graduating class. The catalogue or brochure shall contain a list of the departments of the school, the titles of the personnel and a brief summary of each person’s qualifications. The curriculum shall include, but not be limited to, 4 academic years’ instruction in the following subjects:

  • Anatomy
    •  Embryology
    •  Histology
    •  Neuro-anatomy
  • Physiology and Chemistry
  • Pathology and Bacteriology
  • Diagnosis
    •  Physical
    •  Differential
    •  Laboratory

5. buildings provided with laboratories equipped for instruction in anatomy, chemistry, physiology, bacteriology and other areas of learning necessary to the due course of study prescribed by this Part; and that a laboratory equipped with supplies, models, mannequins, charts, stereopticon, roentgen-ray and other special apparatus used in teaching the system to treat human ailments without the use of medicine and operative surgery, be provided.

6. a library, accessible to students is maintained, with a librarian in constant attendance. The library shall contain a standard medical dictionary, texts and reference books, and the files of professional periodicals.

7. the college or institution requires all students to furnish, before matriculation, satisfactory proof of the preliminary education required by the Act.

8. full and complete records are kept showing the credentials for admission, attendance, grades and financial accounts of each student.

9. admission of transfer students will be limited to honorably dismissed students from another approved college or institution teaching the same system. The transcript of record obtained directly from the transferring school shall be kept on file. It shall be the duty of a college or institution to furnish such a transcript for the benefit of each student subject to honorable dismissal. No credit shall be given a transferred student for final or “senior year” work or for any courses taken by correspondence.

10. students shall start class attendance within one week after the start of each session. Credit for completion of a course will not be granted a student who failed to attend 80% of the complete session of the course.

b) Applicants seeking licensure who have received a chiropractic degree from a college that is not fully accredited in accordance with Section 11(B) of the Act and who are seeking licensure based on a second, duplicate or similar degree must pay the required fee and provide an official transcript specified in Section 21 of the Act to the Division showing:

1. completion of a least 2 additional academic years of study in the clinical sciences of not less than 960 clock hours per academic year in a fully accredited college during the time of additional study; and

2. the hours of clinical practice retaken to fulfill the chiropractic degree requirements. No credit will be given for prior credits in clinical practice. c) All chiropractic colleges fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the Council of Chiropractic Education or its successor at the time of graduation shall be deemed to have met the minimum standards.

(Source: Amended at 29 Ill. Reg. 18823, effective November 4, 2005)

Pharmacists

68 IAC 1330.410 – Pharmacy Licenses

Dishonorable, Unethical or Unprofessional Conduct

  • Each individual, partnership, corporation or any other applicant for a pharmacy license shall indicate, on forms supplied by the Division, the type of pharmacy services to be provided by the licensee.
  • The Board may review and make recommendations to the Director regarding pharmacy applications filed with the Division.
  • A pharmacy who provides more than one type of pharmacy service shall be issued one pharmacy license and shall be charged the appropriate fee, as set forth in Section 1330.20.
  • A pharmacy shall designate a pharmacist-in-charge as provided for in Section 1330.660.
  • When a management company is hired to run a pharmacy, that management company shall be the license holder; however, the license may be issued in the name of the pharmacy or of the management company. The Illinois Controlled Substance license shall be issued in the name of the management company unless the management company and the pharmacy or hospital cosigns a pharmacy service agreement that assigns overall responsibility for controlled substances to the hospital or pharmacy.
Dentists

68 IAC 1220.406 – Impaired Dentist and Dental Hygienist Program of Care, Counseling or Treatment

Section 5.5 of the Act requires the Division to establish a program of care, counseling or treatment for impaired dentists.

Definitions

1. Impaired dentist” or “impaired dental hygienist” means a dentist or dental hygienist who is unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety because of a physical or mental disability as evidenced by a written determination or written consent based on clinical evidence, including deterioration through the aging process, loss of motor skills, abuse of drugs or alcohol, or a psychiatric disorder, of sufficient degree to diminish the person’s ability to deliver competent patient care. (Section 4 of the Act). A dentist or dental hygienist may be determined to be impaired:

  • by signing a written consent with the Department declaring the nature of the impairment; or
  • upon the determination of a qualified health care professional; or
  • upon the determination of a qualified health care professional who has performed an examination of the dentist or dental hygienist pursuant to Section 23b of the Act.

2. “Program of care, counseling, or treatment” means a written schedule of organized treatment care, counseling, activities, or education satisfactory to the Board, designed for the purpose of restoring an impaired person to a condition whereby the impaired person can practice with reasonable skill and safety of sufficient degree to deliver competent patient care.

Program of Care, Counseling or Treatment

1. A dentist or dental hygienist who has been determined by a qualified health care professional to be impaired shall enter into an agreement with the Division in which the dentist or dental hygienist agrees to participate in a program designed to provide care, counseling and treatment specifically for health care professionals and that has been approved by the Division. The agreement may include, but not be limited to, the length of the program, the status of the licensee while in a treatment program, and a termination clause whereby both parties may, by separate agreement in writing, terminate the agreement at any time.

2. All progress reports of treatment and participation in a treatment program shall be sent to the Division every 60 days. A relapse or non-compliance with the treatment program shall be reported to the Division immediately. All reports shall be signed by a licensed physician, clinical psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, or licensed clinical professional counselor or other substance abuse professional approved by the Division.

3. An impaired dentist or dental hygienist shall continue in an after care program until he or she is released upon successful completion of the structured treatment program.

4. If a dentist or dental hygienist is being treated for alcohol or drug abuse:

  • The person shall submit progress reports from any sponsors in Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous or other after care programs to the Division on a quarterly basis.
  • The person shall submit to random drug and alcohol screenings and the results shall be submitted to the Division by the treatment program. The impaired dentist or dental hygienist is responsible for the cost of the reports. The Division shall be notified immediately by the treatment program if the person fails to submit to the random drug and alcohol screenings.

All reports required shall be submitted to the Dental Coordinator, Division of Professional Regulation, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, 100 West Randolph Street, Suite 9-300, Chicago, Illinois 60601.

The contents of any report shall be strictly confidential and shall be exempt from public disclosure. The reports shall be reviewed only by the following:

1. The Board of Dentistry.

2. Designated Department attorneys.

3. Administrative personnel assigned to open mail containing reports and to process and distribute the reports to authorized persons, and to communicate with senders of reports.

4. The individual who is the subject of the report, his/her attorney or his/her authorized representative.

5. The Division’s Dental Coordinator.

The reports shall also be admissible as evidence at any hearing arising from any charge by the Division that the impaired individual failed to comply with any terms and conditions of any agreement with the Division or otherwise violated the Dental Practice Act during the period an agreement is in effect.

The reports may also be handled or processed by other designated persons in a limited manner necessary to implement reports required under the Act or this Section by computer, word processing equipment or other mechanical means. The data record shall be limited to the name and address of the originator of the report, the date the initial report was received, the date of the most recent report and the professional license number of the subject of the report.

Upon determination by the Board that a report on an impaired person is no longer required for review and consideration, the Board shall notify the maker of the reports to cease sending the reports. The Board’s determination shall be based on, but not be limited to: the type of impairment and the type of rehabilitation program, length of supervision, occurrence of any relapses, and present status of the dentist’s or dental hygienist’s license.

(Source: Added at 30 Ill. Reg. 19656, effective December 18, 2006)

Clinical and Professional Counselors

68 IAC 1375.225 – Unprofessional Conduct

The Division may suspend or revoke a license, refuse to issue or renew a license or take other disciplinary action, based upon its finding of unethical, unauthorized, or unprofessional conduct within the meaning of Section 80 of the Act, which is interpreted to include, but is not limited to, the following acts or practices:

Counseling Relationships

  • Practicing, condoning, facilitating, collaborating with or engaging in discrimination based on age, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spiritually, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/partnership, language preference, socioeconomic status, or any basis prescribed by law. Counselors shall not discriminate against clients, students, employees, supervisees, or research participants in a manner that has a negative impact on these persons.
  • Engaging in any action that violates or diminishes the civil or legal rights of clients.
  • Engaging in the sexual exploitation of clients, client’s romantic partners, or client’s family members, students or supervisees.
  • Engaging in or condoning sexual harassment, including, but not limited to, deliberate or repeated comments, gestures or physical contacts of a sexual nature, that occurs in connection with professional activities or roles.
  • Bringing personal or professional biases into the counseling relationship. Through an awareness of the impact of stereotyping and discrimination (i.e., biases based on age, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual preference), counselors guard the individual rights and personal dignity of the client in the counseling relationship.
  • Engaging in any type of sexual or romantic intimacies with clients, client’s romantic partners, or client’s family members. Counselors shall not provide counseling services to persons with whom they have had a sexual relationship, including the person’s romantic partners, or their family members.
  • Engaging in sexual intimacies with former clients, client’s romantic partners, or client’s family members prior to five years after termination of the counselor/client relationship.
  • Engaging in any nonprofessional relationships with clients, former clients, client’s romantic partners, or client’s family members should be avoided, except when the interaction is potentially beneficial to the client. All potentially beneficial relationships must be documented in case notes, and conducted with full client consent. When unintentional harm occurs to the client, or former client, or to an individual significantly involved with the client or former client, due to the nonprofessional interaction, the counselor must show evidence of an attempt to remedy that harm.
  • Failing to offer all pertinent facts regarding services rendered to the client prior to administration of professional services. The purpose of informed consent is to insure a client’s complete access to information pertaining to professional services. Examples include, but are not limited to, the purposes, goals, techniques, procedures, limitations, potential risks, and benefits of services; the counselor’s qualifications, credentials and relevant experience; continuation of services upon the incapacitation or death of a counselor. Counselors must take steps to ensure that clients understand the implications of diagnosis, the intended use of assessments and reports, billing arrangements, length of treatment and utilization of consultants. The client’s signature indicating receipt of pertinent information is strongly encouraged.

Confidentiality

  • Failing to inform clients at the onset of the counseling relationship of the limits of confidentiality. These limitations include, but are not limited to: limitations mandated by the law, requirements to protect clients or identified others from serious and foreseeable harm, or when the counselor is a defendant in a civil, criminal or disciplinary action arising from the counseling.
  • Revealing facts, data or information relating to a client or examinee, except as allowed under Section 75 of the Act or under the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act or any other federal or State laws pertaining to confidentiality.
  • Failing to take appropriate steps to protect the privacy of a client and avoid unnecessary disclosures of confidential information. The right to privacy belongs to clients and may be waived. A written waiver shall be signed by the client and the information revealed shall be in accordance with the terms of the waiver.

Scope of Practice/Professional Responsibility

  • Performing, or pretending to be able to perform, professional services beyond one’s scope of practice and one’s competency, as defined by education, training, supervised experience, State and national professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience.
  • Abandoning or neglecting clients and/or failing to refer and/or make appropriate arrangements for the continuation of treatment, when necessary, during interruptions, such as vacations or illness, and following termination.
  • Failing to use techniques/procedures/modalities that are grounded in professionally accepted theory and/or have an empirical or scientific foundation. Counselors who do not use these tools, must define the techniques/procedures as “unproven” or “developing” and explain the potential risk and ethical considerations of using the techniques/procedures and take steps to protect clients from possible harm.
  • Failing to establish and maintain client records and case notes, including failing to inform clients of issues related to the difficulty of maintaining the confidentiality of electronically transmitted communication. Records must be maintained for at least 7 years. In the case of a minor, records must be maintained 7 years after the minor turns 18.
  • Failing to inform clients of the benefits and limitations of using information technology applications in the counseling process and in business/billing procedures. These technologies include but are not limited to computer hardware and software, telephone, the internet, online assessment instruments, and other communication devices.
  • Advertising shall not be deceptive, misleading or false. Counselors should claim or imply only professional credentials possessed and are responsible for correcting any misrepresentations of their credentials by others. Professional credentials include highest relevant degrees, accreditation of graduate programs, national voluntary certifications, government-issued certifications or licenses, professional membership, or any other credential that might indicate to the public specialized knowledge or expertise in professional counseling.
  • Submission of fraudulent claims for services to any person or entity including, but not limited to, health insurance companies or health service plans or third party payors.
  • Knowingly offering or providing services to a client when the counselor’s ability to practice is impaired. Failing to seek assistance for problems that reach the level of professional impairment, and, if necessary, limiting, suspending or terminating his or her professional responsibilities until such time it is determined that it is safe to resume work. Causes of impairment may include, but are not limited to, the abuse of mood altering chemicals and physical or mental problems; offering professional services when the counselor’s personal problems or conflicts may harm a client or others.

Supervision

  • Permitting a supervisee or intern under his/her supervision or control to perform, or permitting the supervisee or intern to hold himself or herself out as competent to perform, professional services beyond the supervisee’s or intern’s level of education, training and/or experience.
  • Allowing a supervisee to violate the rights of clients, permitting a supervisee to violate confidentiality standards or client privacy, or failing to provide clients with professional disclosure information and inform them of how the supervision process influences the limits of confidentiality, including who will have access to records of the counseling relationship and how these records will be used.
  • Participating in any form of sexual or romantic contact with supervisees. Nonprofessional relationships with supervisees that might impair the supervisor’s objectivity and professional judgment should be avoided and/or the supervisory relationship terminated.

Evaluation, Assessment and Interpretation

  • Failing to have appropriate education and training for each specific assessment and recognize the limits of their competence and perform only those functions for which they are prepared. In particular, counselors using technology-assisted test interpretations must be trained in the construct being measured and the specific instrument being used prior to using this technology-based application.
  • Failing to inform prospective research participants or their authorized representative fully of potential serious after effects of the research or failing to remove the after effects as soon as the design of the research permits.

The Division hereby incorporates by reference “The American Counseling Association Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice”, April 2005, approved by the American Counseling Association, 5999 Stevenson Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22304, with no later amendments or editions.

Licensed Professional Counselors and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors are responsible for professional conduct consistent with every standard, in addition to the ones summarized in this Section, published in the 2005 American Counseling Association Code of Ethics.

(Source: Amended at 35 Ill. Reg. 7586, effective May 13, 2011)