DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, BD. OF PHYSICAL THERAPY PRACTICE v. Cralle, 1D02-2807.

• Decision Date: 26 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 1D02-2807.,1D02-2807.
• Parties: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, BOARD OF PHYSICAL THERAPY PRACTICE, Appellant, v. Raymond H. CRALLE, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

852 So.2d 930

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, BOARD OF PHYSICAL THERAPY PRACTICE, Appellant, v. Raymond H. CRALLE, Appellee.

No. 1D02-2807.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

August 26, 2003.

Pamela H. Page, Assistant General Counsel, Department of Health, Tallahassee, for appellant.

Richard H. Willits, Lake Worth, for appellee.

WOLF, C.J.

Appellant challenges a final order of the Department of Administrative Hearings granting appellee's motion for attorney's fees and costs. We determine that the Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") improperly granted fees pursuant to section 57.111, Florida Statutes, and reverse.

The appellee, Raymond H. Cralle, was a licensed physical therapist in the State of Florida when a complaint was filed against him by H.M., a woman who had worked for Cralle as a physical therapist technician. The complainant stated that she was required to write Mr. Cralle's SOAP notes in violation of statutes and rules regarding delegation of duties to unlicensed personnel.¹ Based upon the complaint, the Department initiated an investigation.

Prior to bringing the matter before the Board of Physical Therapy's probable cause panel, the Department sent the result of its investigation to an expert for review. The expert's opinion concluded that based upon the information provided by the complainant, Cralle had violated section 486.125(1)(e), Florida Statutes, and rule 64B17-6.007(6), Florida Administrative Code, by delegating to the complainant the responsibility for writing SOAP notes which requires the special knowledge and skill of a physical therapist or physical therapist assistant. The expert rejected Cralle's explanation that he allowed H.M. to prepare SOAP notes as part of her educational training, stating that there was no contract between the clinic and the school and a student working as a technician would be considered unlicensed personnel. Cralle did not dispute the substance of the allegations made by H.M. prior to the probable cause determination.

The full investigative report and the expert's report were sent to the probable cause panel for consideration along with the material submitted by Cralle which included excerpts of textbooks used in classes taken by H.M. to demonstrate that H.M. had been taught how to write SOAP notes during the course of her education. A probable cause panel meeting was held on April 24, 2001, at which Cralle's case was discussed. The probable cause panel voted in favor of filing an administrative complaint against Cralle.

Cralle was charged by the Department with violating section 486.125(1), Florida Statutes, and specified provisions of the Florida Administrative Code for delegating the responsibility of writing SOAP notes to a physical therapist technician, for delegating activities that require the special knowledge and judgment of the physical therapist, for delegating portions of the skilled physical therapy functions to lesser trained health personnel, for delegating either evaluation or reevaluation of patients, and for allowing unlicensed personnel to document progress notes other than tasks and activities of a patient.

Following an administrative hearing, the ALJ recommended that the Department enter a final order dismissing all charges against Cralle. The ALJ found that the complainant's testimony was not credible; she described the complainant as hostile, prosecutorial, and unstable. The ALJ also rejected the complainant's version of what took place because she found that the explanation given by Cralle at the hearing made more sense to her, that explanation being that Cralle merely dictated notes for the technician to record as opposed to allowing her to write SOAP notes on her own.² On February 8, 2002, the Department filed a final order of dismissal in that case, adopting the ALJ's recommended findings and conclusions.

Cralle filed a motion for attorney's fees and costs under section 57.111, Florida Statutes, the Florida Equal Access to Justice Act. The Department responded to the motion for fees and costs by arguing that the underlying action was substantially justified based on the information that was presented to the probable cause panel; thus, Cralle was not entitled to fees under section 57.111. The ALJ who ruled on the fees motion was the same ALJ who presided over the administrative hearing and recommended dismissing the action against Cralle. The ALJ granted Cralle's motion, stating that at the time of the probable cause hearing "it was known or at least knowable that [H.M.] fit the profile of a "stereotypical `disgruntled former employee.' " The ALJ also noted that at the probable cause stage of the proceedings, the Department's expert recommended that at least some of the witnesses who could have been expected to corroborate H.M.'s testimony be interviewed. The ALJ stated, "With this red flag flying, and Cralle's attorney protesting that [H.M.'s] story should be corroborated in some fashion before the litigation was set in motion, the Department elected to proceed on a needlessly thin investigation."

Section 57.111, Florida Statutes, provides for awards of attorney's fees and costs in judicial as well as administrative proceedings and is designed to reimburse small businesses...