Page 42 - Part 1 Collaborating with Advanced Practice Providers - An Overview of State Rules

SVMIC Collaborating with Advanced Practice Providers

licensure test for PAs four times. He denied during
depositions that he performed patient examinations.

The ED physician testified that he'd assumed the provider was
a licensed PA and that he didn't need to redo the history and

examination. The doctor and his medical group blamed each

other. The doctor said he would have redone the examination
if he'd known that the expediter was unlicensed. The medical

group's leader said it was the doctor's responsibility to ask the
expediter about his status. There had been no written

guidelines for what the he was authorized to do.

The jury was clearly outraged, finding that the group had tried

to conceal the APP's involvement from the plaintiffs and
placed profits over patient safety.

Physician Licensure and Similar Specialty

Every state within the SVMIC service area requires supervising or

collaborating physicians to have a current, unencumbered state

medical license. Further, physicians must normally be actively

engaged in patient care to be qualified to supervise and must have
experience or expertise in the same specialty of medicine as the

APP. For example, to be qualified to supervise an orthopedic

physician assistant or nurse practitioner, a physician must practice

within or have experience in orthopedics.

This is an important aspect of supervision and/or collaboration to
consider and understand. The Tennessee Board of Medical

Examiners addressed this concept and has provided a useful

example in an advisory ruling answering the question of whether a

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