Florida’s health care licensing system is handling a heavy caseload, and doctors are among the professionals most likely to feel it.
The Florida Department of Health’s Division of Medical Quality Assurance received 16,198 complaints against licensed health care practitioners in the second quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year, which ran from October through December 2025, according to the department’s latest quarterly performance report.
During the same quarter, the department completed 1,416 investigations and issued 62 emergency orders, most of them emergency suspensions. Probable cause was found in 348 complaints.
Medical doctors make up the largest licensed group outside of nursing, with 102,303 licensed in the state, according to the report.
For physicians, a complaint usually starts with a letter of investigation from the department. The doctor is given a deadline to respond, and investigators begin gathering records and interviewing witnesses.
In cases involving the standard of care, the department typically hires an expert in the physician’s specialty to review the treatment.
The case then goes to a probable cause panel. If the panel finds probable cause, the department files an administrative complaint, and the case becomes a public record.
Penalties handed down by the Florida Board of Medicine or the Board of Osteopathic Medicine range from fines and letters of concern to probation, suspension, and revocation.
Common allegations include falling below the standard of care, overprescribing controlled substances, self-prescribing, poor medical records, wrong-site procedures, and failure to supervise physician assistants or advanced practice registered nurses.
Physicians can also face discipline for things that happen outside the exam room. Florida requires licensees to report a guilty finding or no contest plea to a crime within 30 days, and to report discipline from another state within the same window. Missing either deadline can lead to a separate charge.
Tampa attorney Lauren A. Leikam, a former Department of Health prosecutor who now represents health care professionals, says on her firm’s website that the licensing board’s primary duty is to protect the public, not the physician’s license. She also cautions doctors that casual conversations with investigators can be used against them.
Lauren A. Leikam, PLLC advises physicians to involve a medical license defense lawyer early in the process, before responding to the department’s letter, and says it may retain its own medical expert to review the care at issue.
With complaint volumes this high and probable cause found in hundreds of cases each quarter, the first response to a Department of Health letter can carry real weight for a doctor’s career.
