Supervision

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  • (a) Supervision shall be continuous but shall not be construed as necessarily requiring the physical presence of the supervising physician at the time and place that the services are rendered. A supervising physician must be present on the island where the physician assistant service is being rendered to constitute continuous supervision. If the supervising physician is not present on the island where the physician assistant services are being rendered then the supervisory responsibility may be delegated by that physician to another physician with whom a supervisory agreement with the physician assistant is in place. Physician assistants may not practice independently on any island in the Virgin Islands. Physician assistants must be continuously supervised. Each supervising physician in the Virgin Islands must have an unrestricted license to practice medicine and surgery in the Virgin Islands. In the Virgin Islands a physician is not permitted to supervise more than three physician assistants at any one time. Every person practicing as a physician assistant in the Virgin Islands must be licensed to do so by the Virgin Islands Board of Medical Examiners. Physician assistants must practice within the written scope of health care services assigned to them by their respective supervising physicians. A separate office for the physician assistant shall not be established.

  • (b) The Board of Medical Examiners, in consultation with the Board of Pharmacy, shall promulgate such regulations governing the prescriptive authority of physician assistants as are deemed reasonable and necessary to ensure an appropriate standard of care for patients. The regulations promulgated pursuant to this section shall include at a minimum:

    • (1) Such requirements as may be necessary to ensure continued physician assistant competency that may include continuing education, testing, and/or any other requirement, and shall address the need to promote ethical practice, an appropriate standard of care, patient safety, the use of pharmaceuticals, and appropriate communication with patients;

    • (2) Requirements for periodic site visits by supervising licensees who supervise and direct physician assistants who provide services at a location other than where the licensee regularly practices; and

    • (3) A requirement that the assistant disclose to his patients that he is a physician assistant, and the name, address and telephone number of the supervising licensee.

  • (c) It is the obligation of each team of physician or physicians and physician assistant or physician assistants to ensure that the physician assistant's scope of practice is identified; that delegation of medical tasks is appropriate to the physician assistant's level of competence; that the relationship of, and access to, the supervising physician is defined; and that a process for evaluation of the physician assistant's performance is established.


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