Florida Administrative Code › 64 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH › 64B2 - Board of Chiropractic Medicine › Chapter 64B2-17 - CHIROPRACTIC PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE › Section 64B2-17.0021 - Sexual Misconduct

Current through Reg. 50, No. 138; July 16, 2024
The chiropractic physician/patient relationship is founded on
				  the trust and confidence that a patient places in the chiropractic physician,
				  and this rule is intended to prevent a chiropractic physician from taking
				  advantage of that trust for the chiropractic physician's own pleasure,
				  satisfaction or benefit. To protect both the chiropractor and the patient, the
				  Board recommends the presence of a third person during a chiropractic
				  physician's examination and treatment of a patient.
(1) No chiropractic physician may engage in
				sexual misconduct with a patient of the chiropractic physician.
(2) Sexual misconduct is any direct or
				indirect physical contact by any person or between persons which is intended or
				which is likely to cause to either person stimulation of a sexual nature.
				Sexual misconduct includes sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus,
				masturbation, or anal intercourse. Sexual misconduct also includes the
				activities described in subsections (3) through (8), of this rule.
(3) A licensee who fails to inform a patient
				when the licensee must touch the patient's breasts or genitalia for diagnostic
				or therapeutic purposes, or a licensee who disregards a patient's request that
				the licensee not touch the patient's breasts or genitalia, is guilty of sexual
				misconduct.
(4) A licensee who
				makes suggestive, lewd, or lascivious remarks to a patient or who performs
				suggestive, lewd, or lascivious acts in the presence of a patient is guilty of
				sexual misconduct.
(5) A licensee
				who intentionally touches a patient's breasts or sexual organs for
				non-diagnostic or non-therapeutic purposes is guilty of sexual misconduct,
				regardless of whether the patient is clothed.
(6) A licensee who makes intentional contact
				with or who penetrates a patient's oral, anal, or vaginal orifice with the
				licensee's own sexual organ is guilty of sexual misconduct.
(7) A licensee who makes intentional contact
				with or who penetrates a patient's oral, anal, or vaginal orifice with any
				object for any purpose other than a professionally recognized diagnostic or
				therapeutic purpose is guilty of sexual misconduct.
(8) Definition of patient. A patient is any
				person who was being examined or who was under the care or treatment of the
				chiropractic physician when the incident or incidents of sexual misconduct
				allegedly occurred, regardless of whether the person was billed by or was
				paying for chiropractic services from the licensee who is accused of sexual
				misconduct. A person shall be considered a patient until after one year has
				elapsed since the last date on which the chiropractic physician examined or
				treated the person.
(9) Consent as
				a defense. Because of the control that a chiropractic physician exercises in
				the physician/patient relationship, a patient's consent may not be used by the
				chiropractic physician in the defense of an allegation of sexual misconduct on
				the part of the chiropractic physician.
Rulemaking Authority
					 460.405,
					 460.412 FS. Law Implemented
					 460.412
					 FS.
New 6-24-93, Formerly 21D-17.0021, 61F2-17.0021, Amended
					 7-18-95, Formerly 59N-17.0021.