McAllen, TX asked in Employment Law, Personal Injury, Workers' Compensation and Health Care Law for Texas

Q: In Texas Can Nurse practitioners see patients, treat and prescribe without a DR present?

Theres a Clinic, the Dr listed on the paperwork does not actually practice in that clinic or near the clinic. Does not even reside within 100miles of this clinic. From what i have read, this is wrong and against Texas Medical Board rules. Is this correct?

1 Lawyer Answer

A: Yes, in Texas, nurse practitioners can see and treat patients without a doctor being physically present, and can prescribed many medications under delegated authority from a supervising doctor. There are requirements about review patient charts with the supervising doctor and, for certain medications, nurse practitioners are limited to prescribing only 30 day supplies. There are also certain procedures nurse practitioners cannot perform or can only perform when a doctor is present in the facility. For many routine visits, the NP can see, treat, and prescribe medications to a patient even though the supervising doctor is doing something else somewhere else.

There is no requirement that a doctor reside within a certain distance of a clinic where he works or where a nurse practitioner under the doctor's supervision works. It is extremely common for doctors and nurses, including nurse practitioners, to travel for work. I have worked with groups of doctors who own urgent care clinics and freestanding emergency rooms who travel all over the state to staff facilities they own an interest in. Many of them lived over 100 miles from many of the facilities they staffed.

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