4730.21 Duties of supervising physician.
4730.21 Duties of supervising physician.
(A) The supervising physician of a physician assistant exercises supervision, control, and direction of the physician assistant. In supervising a physician assistant, all of the following apply:
(1) Except when the on-site supervision requirements specified in section 4730.45 of the Revised Code are applicable, the supervising physician shall be continuously available for direct communication with the physician assistant by either of the following means:
(a) Being physically present at the location where the physician assistant is practicing;
(b) Being readily available to the physician assistant through some means of telecommunication and being in a location that under normal conditions is not more than sixty minutes travel time away from the location where the physician assistant is practicing.
(2) The supervising physician shall personally and actively review the physician assistant’s professional activities.
(3) The supervising physician shall regularly review the condition of the patients treated by the physician assistant.
(4) The supervising physician shall ensure that the quality assurance system established pursuant to division (F) of this section is implemented and maintained.
(5) The supervising physician shall regularly perform any other reviews of the physician assistant that the supervising physician considers necessary.
(B) A physician may enter into supervision agreements with any number of physician assistants, but the physician may not supervise more than two physician assistants at any one time. A physician assistant may enter into supervision agreements with any number of supervising physicians, but when practicing under the supervision of a particular physician, the physician assistant’s scope of practice is subject to the limitations of the physician supervisory plan that has been approved under section 4730.17 of the Revised Code for that physician or the policies of the health care facility in which the physician and physician assistant are practicing.
(C) A supervising physician may authorize a physician assistant to perform a service only if the service is authorized under the physician supervisory plan approved for that physician or the policies of the health care facility in which the physician and physician assistant are practicing. A supervising physician may authorize a physician assistant to perform a service only if the physician is satisfied that the physician assistant is capable of competently performing the service. A supervising physician shall not authorize a physician assistant to perform any service that is beyond the physician’s or the physician assistant’s normal course of practice and expertise.
(D)(1) A supervising physician may authorize a physician assistant to practice in any setting within which the supervising physician routinely practices.
(2) In the case of a health care facility with an emergency department, if the supervising physician routinely practices in the facility’s emergency department, the supervising physician shall provide on-site supervision of the physician assistant when the physician assistant practices in the emergency department. If the supervising physician does not routinely practice in the facility’s emergency department, the supervising physician may, on occasion, send the physician assistant to the facility’s emergency department to assess and manage a patient. In supervising the physician assistant’s assessment and management of the patient, the supervising physician shall determine the appropriate level of supervision in compliance with the requirements of divisions (A) to (C) of this section, except that the supervising physician must be available to go to the emergency department to personally evaluate the patient and, at the request of an emergency department physician, the supervising physician shall go to the emergency department to personally evaluate the patient.
(E) Each time a physician assistant writes a medical order, including prescriptions written in the exercise of physician-delegated prescriptive authority, the physician assistant shall sign the form on which the order is written and record on the form the time and date that the order is written. When writing a medical order, the physician assistant shall clearly identify the physician under whose supervision the physician assistant is authorized to write the order.
(F)(1) The supervising physician of a physician assistant shall establish a quality assurance system to be used in supervising the physician assistant. All or part of the system may be applied to other physician assistants who are supervised by the supervising physician. The system shall be developed in consultation with each physician assistant to be supervised by the physician.
(2) In establishing the quality assurance system, the supervising physician shall describe a process to be used for all of the following:
(a) Routine review by the physician of selected patient record entries made by the physician assistant and selected medical orders issued by the physician assistant;
(b) Discussion of complex cases;
(c) Discussion of new medical developments relevant to the practice of the physician and physician assistant;
(d) Performance of any quality assurance activities required in rules adopted by state medical board pursuant to any recommendations made by the physician assistant policy committee under section 4730.06 of the Revised Code;
(e) Performance of any other quality assurance activities that the supervising physician considers to be appropriate.
(3) The supervising physician and physician assistant shall keep records of their quality assurance activities. On request, the records shall be made available to the board and any health care professional working with the supervising physician and physician assistant.
Effective Date: 03-05-1996; 05-17-2006