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Haley v. Medical Disciplinary Board11/7/1991
a minor under circumstances violating both RCW 26.28.080<!--/REF--> and RCW 66.44.270; and (4) that he provided an unsupervised residential living arrangement for a minor female, in violation of RCW 74.15.100.
We recognize that, in an appropriate case, the Board's ruling that a physician has violated RCW 18.130.180(1)<!--/REF--> might be made more secure by determinations that the physician's conduct violated other statutes as well. Such additional determinations are not required, however. Here, the conclusion that Dr. Haley violated RCW 18.130.180(1)<!--/REF--> is secure without reference to other alleged statutory violations. We therefore do not consider the Board's rulings that Dr. Haley transgressed RCW 26.44.020(12), RCW 9.68A.090, RCW 26.28.080, RCW 66.44.270, and RCW 74.15.100, even though the rulings might be supportable.
Dr. Haley raises two arguments to support his contention that he did not violate RCW 18.130.180(1). First, he contends that his relationship with M. did not relate to the practice of his profession. Second, he argues that RCW 18.130.180(1)<!--/REF--> is unconstitutionally vague. We reject both arguments.
Dr. Haley contends that his relationship with M. did not relate to the practice of his profession because she was not his patient during the time of their sexual contact, and because, as the Board found, he exercised no improper influence over her when she was his patient. Any improper conduct in which he may have engaged, Dr. Haley argues, was not related to his practice of medicine because it was not performed during the course of his medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of patients.
In support of his position, Dr. Haley relies on McDonnell v. Commission on Med. Discipline, 301 Md. 426, 483 A.2d 76 (1984), in which the physician had allegedly made intimidating phone calls to two witnesses in a malpractice case against him. Applying a statute defining unprofessional conduct as " mmoral conduct of a physician in his practice as a physician", McDonnell, at 435, the court held the phone calls were not unprofessional conduct because they were not related to his actual practice of medicine. 301 Md. at 437. Dr. Haley also relies on Atienza v. Taub, 194 Cal. App. 3d 388, 239 Cal. Rptr. 454 (1987), in which a doctor became sexually involved with his patient, who later
filed a medical malpractice suit against him for professional negligence. The patient alleged a breach of fiduciary duty created by the doctor-patient relationship, as well as a violation of a licensing statute allowing discipline of a physician who engages in sexual acts with a patient when those acts are "'substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties" of a physician. 194 Cal. App. 3d at 394 n.3 (quoting Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code ยง 726). The California Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's dismissal, holding that "a physician who induces a patient to enter into sexual relations is liable for professional negligence only if the physician engaged in the sexual conduct on the pretext that it was a necessary part of the treatment for which the patient has sought out the physician." 194 Cal. App. 3d at 393.<BR>
We reject Dr. Haley's argument that his conduct was unrelated to the practice of medicine. In re Kindschi, supra, and Standow demonstrate that conduct need not be narrowly related to the practice of the profession in order for it to i
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