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

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:

F. The board president may choose to have some preliminary investigation done prior to sending the matter to the DOC. Generally, this would include, but is not limited to, obtaining patient records for the DOC to review.

G. The complaint, a response from the licensee if one is requested and received, and any investigative materials gathered by the board, are sent to each member of the DOC. Each member then reviews the materials and conducts any research that he feels is appropriate, then makes a recommendation on how he believes the board should proceed in the matter. The recommendation is provided by the DOC member to the executive director of the board. Once all of the recommendations from the DOC member(s) are received by the executive director, the executive director informs the board president of the recommendations. Taking the recommendations into consideration, the board president chooses a course of action for the board.