HB 1071-S - DIGEST
(SUBSTITUTED FOR - SEE 2ND SUB)

Requires the secretary of health to establish a work group to review the complaint processing and sanction determination phases of the health professions disciplinary process. At the secretary of health's discretion, the work group may include representatives of different health profession boards and commissions, professional associations, and other interested parties. The work group shall submit a report to the legislature by December 1, 2005, with recommendations for creating: (1) Greater efficiencies between the health professions boards and commissions and the secretary of health in processing complaints against license holders; and

(2) More consistent sanction determinations that balance the protection of the public's health and the rights of health care providers among the different health professions, including recommendations for specific ranges of sanctions for each act of unprofessional conduct and the effect of any aggravating and mitigating factors that may apply to each.

Requires the disciplining authority to revoke the license of a license holder who is found, in three unrelated orders under RCW 18.130.110 in a ten-year period, to have engaged in three separate courses of unprofessional conduct based upon any combination of the designated act.

Declares that nothing in this act limits the ability of the disciplining authority to impose any sanction, including revocation, for a single violation of any subsection of RCW 18.130.180.

Provides that, notwithstanding RCW 9.96A.020(1), revocation of a license under this act is not subject to a petition for reinstatement under RCW 18.130.150.