Dentist Who Ordered Dental Hygienist to Draw Blood... Court Rules 3-Month License Suspension Justified

[The Financial News] A court has upheld a three-month suspension of a dentist’s medical license for having a dental hygienist perform blood draws, a procedure that must be carried out by a licensed medical professional.
According to the legal community on the 2nd, Presiding Judge Lee Jeong-won of the Seoul Administrative Court’s 5th Administrative Division ruled against a dentist identified as A in a lawsuit filed last November seeking to overturn the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s decision to suspend A’s medical license.
A had been indicted for instructing dental hygienists at the hospital to draw blood from 570 patients. In 2023, the court found that A had violated the Medical Service Act and imposed a fine of 10 million won. After the conviction, the Ministry of Health and Welfare determined that A had "caused a person who is not a medical professional to perform a medical act" and ordered a three-month suspension. Under current law, dental hygienists are classified as medical technologists, not as medical professionals.
A argued that the instructions were given only because of a misunderstanding about the scope of practice for dental hygienists, and claimed the conduct should be treated as a case of merely having them work beyond their authorized scope. On that basis, A contended that the appropriate sanction should be a 15-day suspension. Under the Medical Service Act and related administrative sanction rules, when a medical technologist is made to work beyond the scope of their duties, a 15-day suspension may be imposed.
The court, however, rejected A’s arguments.
The bench found that ordering a medical technologist to perform medical acts can pose a greater risk to public health and hygiene than a situation where a licensed medical professional performs medical acts beyond the scope of their own license. On this basis, the court concluded that the three-month suspension was not excessive when viewed from the standpoint of proportionality in sanctions.
The court stated, "When a medical technologist is made to perform medical acts that only a medical professional is allowed to perform, the potential harm to public health and hygiene may be greater than when a medical professional performs medical acts beyond the scope of their license, yet the former would be subject to a far more lenient standard of administrative sanction than the latter."
The court further held that the clause invoked by A—"having a medical technologist work beyond their scope"—should be interpreted as covering situations where a medical technologist performs non-medical tasks that must still be carried out personally by a medical professional, such as preparing a medical record.
theknight@fnnews.com Jeong Gyeong-su Reporter