Is Your Nurse Practitioner Supervised by a Doctor?
Well, yes . . . sort of.
By: Tamara Hill
Tennessee law requires clinical supervision of certified nurse practitioners. Each nurse practitioner must be supervised by an actively practicing licensed physician. The physician does not have to be present, but he or she must be available for consultation or make arrangements for a substitute physician to be available. The nurse practitioner and supervising physician must jointly develop protocols that define the patients’ standard of care. The physician is ultimately responsible to see that the nurse practitioner complies with the standard of care.
The supervising physician is required to make a personal review of patient charts once every ten (10) business days. However, the physician is only required to personally review 20% of the charts except where medically indicated, when requested by the patient, when prescriptions written by the nurse practitioner fall outside the jointly written protocols, when the nurse practitioner only has a temporary certificate to practice or when the nurse practitioner prescribes a controlled substance.
It appears that the only way to ensure that the care provided to you as a patient is supervised by a physician is to request a personal review. Otherwise, there may be only a 20% chance that your care is ever reviewed by a doctor.
In some cases, this lax level of supervision can lead to misdiagnosis and medical errors in treatment. A nurse practitioner can be sued for their negligence in treating a patient just like the supervising doctor. If you have been seriously injured due to negligent care, call us.....we're here to help and we know how.
Tamara Hill is a lawyer with Hill Boren and a licensed Registered Nurse in Tennessee.
Information for this article was taken from the Rules of Tennessee State Board of Medical Examiners, Division of Health Related Boards, Chapter 0880-6: Rules and Regulations Governing the Utilization and Supervision of the Services of a Nurse Practitioner/Prescription Writer; Physician acceptance of solo-practice nurse practitioners grows, Memphis Business Journal, March 27, 2006; Physicians and Nurse Practitioners in Collaborative Practice, Harvard Risk Management Foundation, Winter Forum 1998.