Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 46 - PROFESSIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS › Part XXXIII - Dental Health Profession › Chapter 8 - Complaints, Investigation, and Informal Resolution › Section XXXIII-801 - Complaints and Investigation

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A.
				Complaints to the board about licensees or about individuals practicing without
				a license must be in writing to be considered by the board. Complaints, other
				than complaints involving advertising violations, must also be signed by the
				person filing the complaint. However, the board president has the discretion to
				accept an anonymous complaint or oral complaint when the complaint, in the
				board presidents judgement with the agreement of one other board member,
				appears to indicate a significant potential for harm to the public. The board
				shall keep a record of the number of complaints per year, other than
				advertising complaints, that were accepted despite being anonymous and/or oral.
				This record of the number of anonymous and/or oral complaints accepted shall be
				kept in accordance with the boards record retention schedule, and shall be
				considered a public record, although details about the complaints are not
				public records and shall remain privileged and confidential pursuant to
				applicable statutes. Complaints can come from any source, including but not
				limited to the general public, board members and governmental agencies or their
				contractors.
B. When a complaint
				is received by the board, the complaint is sent for investigation to a
				committee of one or more board members. This committee is called the
				Disciplinary Oversight Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "DOC"). The
				DOC generally consists of three board members chosen by the executive director
				of the board, but may consist of as few as one member. The board member from
				the same district as the licensee being investigated is not eligible to serve
				on the DOC. The board president is also not eligible to serve on the DOC during
				his term.
C. If for any reason,
				through recusal or otherwise, there are not enough board members to form a
				three-person DOC, the board president may appoint any Louisiana-licensed
				dentists and/or hygienists to serve on the DOC. The only restriction on the
				licensees to be appointed is that their home address in the board records not
				be within the same board electoral district as the home address of the licensee
				being investigated, if the subject of the investigation is a
				licensee.
D. The board president
				has discretion regarding whether to request a response from the subject of the
				complaint prior to sending the complaint to the DOC. If a response is
				requested, the subject of the complaint shall be given a reasonable amount of
				time under the circumstances to respond, and if the subject of the complaint
				responds, the response, along with the complaint and/or a summary of the
				allegations, shall be sent to the DOC.
E. The subject of the complaint will be
				provided with a copy of the complaint no later than the date on which the
				complaint is provided to the DOC unless the board president, in his discretion,
				determines that:
1. providing the complaint
				to the subject would jeopardize a board investigation, in which case a copy of
				the complaint will be provided once the board president determines that
				providing the complaint would no longer jeopardize any investigation, but in
				any event, no later than the date of any informal hearing on the matter;
				or
2. the board president, in his
				discretion feels that there is good cause to keep the identity of the
				complainant confidential, in which case a detailed summary of the facts of the
				complaint shall be provided, withholding any information that might reveal the
				identity of the complainant.