OAR 830-030-0090: Standards of Practice

Every licensee or agent of a licensed facility of the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board (Board) must abide by the accepted standards of the Death Care Industry and the minimum standards, including but not limited to the following standards of practice set forth by the Board. Violations of the following may be cause for Board action. (1) Every licensee or agent of a licensed facility must: (a) Comply with Oregon Revised Statutes relating to death care in ORS Chapters 97, 432 and 692; and comply with the Oregon Public Health Laws; (b) Implement and follow through with contractual arrangements with the person with the legal right to control final disposition; (c) Assign persons to perform functions for which they are licensed and which are within their scope of practice/scope of duties; (d) Supervise trainees (apprentices) and unlicensed persons to whom tasks regulated by this Board are assigned; (e) Report conduct violating paragraphs (1)(a) by any death care industry licensee to the Board or the appropriate law enforcement agency; (f) Respect the dignity and rights of clients, regardless of social or economic status, age, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, nature of health problems or disability; and (g) Respect the dignity of dead human remains by appropriate handling, including but not limited to, transporting, refrigerating, embalming, dressing or performing final disposition. (2) Principals are responsible for the actions of employees related to the operation of a licensed facility; (3) A licensed embalmer or embalmer trainee (apprentice) must supervise and be responsible for the required sanitizing of the preparation room or holding room including, but not limited to, embalming tables, work surfaces, sinks, floors, instruments, and disposal of contaminated waste. A preparation room or holding room must be sanitized after the use of the room. (4) Unacceptable conduct by a licensee or agent of a licensed facility includes: (a) Abusing a corpse, as defined in ORS 166.085 and 166.087; (b) Abusing a client. The definition of abuse includes, but is not limited to, causing physical or emotional discomfort or intimidating, threatening or harassing a client; (c) Failing to report actual or suspected incidents of client or corpse abuse through the proper channels in the work place and to the Board or appropriate law enforcement agencies; (d) Using the death care industry practitioner/client relationship to exploit the client by gaining property or items of value from the client for personal gain beyond the compensation for services; (e) Aiding, abetting, or assisting any individual to violate or circumvent any law, rule or regulation intended to guide the conduct of the death care industry; (f) Failing to perform death care services for the living or the deceased without discrimination on the basis of social or economic status, age, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, nature of health problems or disability; (g) Inaccurate or incomplete record keeping as required by the Board; (h) Providing false information on facility records including, but not limited to, filling in another person’s omissions without consent, signing another person’s name or on their behalf without authority, recording services or merchandise not provided or that a party did not agree to, or falsifying data; (i) Altering a facility record including but not limited to changing the words, letters, or numbers from the original document except in the case of a contract modified in accord with the terms of the contract; (j) Destroying any document related to a death care service that must be preserved by law; or (k) Directing another person to modify, alter or destroy any document related to death care without legal authority to do so. (5) No licensee may: (a) Practice without an appropriate Oregon license/certificate or registration; (b) Allow another person to use one’s license, certificate or registration; (c) Use another’s license, certificate or registration; (d) Make false or misleading statements or use fraud or misrepresentation in communications with the Board. (e) Disclose the contents of the licensure examination or solicit, accept or compile information regarding the contents of the examination, before, during or after its administration. (f) Fail to provide the Board with requested documents or information within the Board’s jurisdiction; (g) Fail to cooperate or answer truthfully or completely inquiries regarding matters within the Board’s jurisdiction; or (h) Have an impairment as defined in ORS 676.303.