STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

IN MATTER OF: )

Revocation of Temporary Clinical ) Laboratory Technician Licensure of )

Lucy M. Escalada and Denial of ) CASE NO. 75-155 Application of Lucy M. Escalada )

for Permanent Licensure as a ) Clinical Laboratory Technologist ) or Clinical Laboratory Technician. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

A hearing was held pursuant to notice in the Dade County Health Department Conference Room, 1350 N.W. 14th Street, Miami, Florida at 10:00 a.m. on July 28, 1976. This hearing was to consider the administrative complaint filed by the department alleging that the Petitioner's application for licensure contained misrepresentations, misstatements or falsifications of material fact contrary to Section 483.21, F.S. and 510D41.08, F.A.C.

APPEARANCES

Attorney for Department Barbara Dell McPherson, Esquire of Health and Division of Health Rehabilitative Services: Post Office Box 210

Jacksonville, Florida Lucy M. Escalada was unrepresented.

STATEMENT OF CASE

A hearing was held pursuant to notice in the above styled cause on July 28, 1976. This matter was originally set for hearing on September 12, 1975. At the commencement of that hearing it was determined that Lucy M. Escalada was not present but was enrolled in the University of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Mrs. Escalada's mother appeared in Mrs. Escalada's behalf and asked that the hearing be continued until June, 1976, when Mrs. Escalada would be back in Florida. This request was unopposed by the agency and the hearing officer granted that request with certain conditions as stated in the Order Granting a Continuance dated September 17, 1975. One of the conditions stated was that Mrs. Escalada advise the Hearing Officer thirty (30) days in advance of the dates she would be out of school in Mexico In June, 1976. There was no word from Mrs. Escalada between September, 1975 and the date of the Final Hearing on July 28, 1976. On June 17, 1976, counsel for the agency requested that a hearing date be set, and the Hearing Officer set the hearing for July 28, 1976, sending formal notice of the Final Hearing to Mrs. Escalada at both her address in Florida and Mexico.

The Hearing Officer has received no communication from Mrs. Escalada; however, Mary Hernandez, who describes herself as a relative of Mrs. Escalada, wrote the Hearing Officer on July 14, 1976. She advised that Mrs. Escalada would not be in Florida over the June-July, 1976 school break and would possibly

return in December, 1976. The Hearing Office wrote Mrs. Escalada a letter advising her that the matter could not be continued further, having been continued once before for her convenience.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The agency presented the testimony of Martha Bass, who is an employee of HRS and works in that agency's section which licenses medical technologists and technicians. She testified that Mrs. Lucy Escalada had come to her office seeking information on licensure. While there, Mrs. Escalada had prepared an application for licensure as a medical technician with supporting documents which Mrs. Bass identified and which were received as Exhibit F. Mrs. Bass stated that on the day following Mrs. Escalada's visit she had found certain documents on the floors adjacent to where Mrs. Escalada had been sitting. Mrs. Bass identified Exhibits A, B, and C as the documents she had found. Exhibit A was identified as the original of a Registry Certificate from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. Exhibit B was an apparent altered copy of certificates of high school completion. Copies of Exhibit A and B were attached to Mrs. Escalada's application. Mrs. Bass stated she had turned Exhibits A, B, and C over to the legal department of HRS who had sent them to the Florida department of Criminal Law Enforcement (FDCLE) crime laboratory for analysis. She further identified Exhibit D as the report which she received from FDCLE on Exhibits A, B. and C.

   
   

2. Mrs. Bass testified that Mrs. Escalada had been written and advised that the documents supporting her application were unsuitable and that she would have to submit other proof of her completion of High school. This had not been done by Mrs. Escalada.

   
   

3. The Hearing Officer has examined the Exhibits A, B, and C and, without reference to Exhibit D concludes that Exhibit B is an altered original of Exhibit A and that a photocopy of Exhibit B was attached to Exhibit F to prove Mrs. Escalada's completion of high school.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

4. The provisions of Section 483.161 empower the DHRS to establish minimum qualifications for clinical laboratory personnel. Section 10D-41.06 provides that a laboratory technician shall have successfully completed high school to be licensed. Section 483.21 provides that any false statement on an application for licensure is a basis for denial or revocation of licensure.

RECOMMENDATION

The Hearing Officer having found that the document, Exhibit B, to be an altered copy of Exhibit A, and having further found that a photocopy oft Exhibit B was used to substantiate Mrs. Escalada's satisfactory completion of high school recommends that Mrs. Escalada's application be denied pending submission of appropriate documentation of her educational, background, and further that the temporary license issued Mrs. Escalada be revoked.

DONE and ORDERED this 16th day of August, 1976, in Tallahassee, Florida.

STEPHEN F. DEAN, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings Room 530, Carlton Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

(904) 488-9675

COPIES FURNISHED:

Barbara D. McPherson, Esquire Division of Health and

Rehabilitative Services Post Office Box 210 Jacksonville, Florida

Mrs. Lucy M. Escalada 6110 S. W. 13th Terrace Miami, Florida 33144

also copy to:

Mrs. Lucy M. Escalada at Manual Bocollao Apartado Postal #6-32 Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico

Docket for Case No: 75-000155

Orders for Case No: 75-000155