Administrative Law Adjudications Involving Healthcare Professionals: Mental Health Expert Testimony

Abstract

Mental health experts are often needed to provide expert testimony about a respondent healthcare professional's retrospective mental state and prospective fitness for duty. This calls for the expert to parse the degree to which educational deficiency and mental illness were substantial contributing factors to any alleged past misconduct, and to offer recommendations for prospective mental health treatment and educational and supervisory remediation of any diagnosed disorders or deficiencies. Unlike adjudication of malpractice—in which the goal is to make an injured party whole by financial compensation for negligent harm—the goal of administrative agency investigation, adjudication, and peer review is to protect the public by serving as an overseer of the quality of the profession. Health care agency investigators and finders of fact require mental health experts who can discern applicable standards of care and procedure and who can offer opinions that may differ in nature substantially from those typically required in ordinary malpractice litigation.