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Texas Occupations Code - Section 157.053. Prescribing At Physician Primary Practice Sites

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Occupations Code > Texas Occupations Code - Section 157.053. Prescribing At Physician Primary Practice Sites

§ 157.053. PRESCRIBING AT PHYSICIAN PRIMARY PRACTICE 
SITES.  (a) In this section, "primary practice site" means:
		(1)  the practice location of a physician at which the 
physician spends the majority of the physician's time;
		(2)  a licensed hospital, a licensed long-term care 
facility, or a licensed adult care center where both the physician 
and the physician assistant or advanced practice nurse are 
authorized to practice;
		(3)  a clinic operated by or for the benefit of a public 
school district to provide care to the students of that district and 
the siblings of those students, if consent to treatment at that 
clinic is obtained in a manner that complies with Chapter 32, Family 
Code;
		(4)  the residence of an established patient;  or                             
		(5)  another location at which the physician is 
physically present with the physician assistant or advanced 
practice nurse.
	(b)  At a physician's primary practice site, a physician 
licensed by the board may delegate to a physician assistant or an 
advanced practice nurse acting under adequate physician 
supervision the act of administering, providing, or carrying out or 
signing a prescription drug order as authorized through a 
physician's order, a standing medical order, a standing delegation 
order, or another order or protocol as defined by the board.
	(c)  Physician supervision of the carrying out and signing of 
prescription drug orders must conform to what a reasonable, prudent 
physician would find consistent with sound medical judgment but may 
vary with the education and experience of the particular advanced 
practice nurse or physician assistant.  A physician shall provide 
continuous supervision, but the constant physical presence of the 
physician is not required.
	(d)  An alternate physician may provide appropriate 
supervision on a temporary basis as defined and established by 
board rule.
	(e)  A physician's authority to delegate the carrying out or 
signing of a prescription drug order is limited to:
		(1)  three physician assistants or advanced practice 
nurses or their full-time equivalents practicing at the physician's 
primary practice site or at an alternate practice site under 
Section 157.0541;  and
		(2)  the patients with whom the physician has 
established or will establish a physician-patient relationship.
	(f)  For purposes of Subsection (e)(2), the physician is not 
required to see the patient within a specific period.

Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.  Amended 
by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 112, § 1, eff. May 11, 2001;  Acts 
2003, 78th Leg., ch. 88, § 4, eff. May 20, 2003.

Last modified: August 10, 2007