216-40-05 R.I. Code R. § 1.2

Current through June 20, 2024

Section 216-RICR-40-05-1.2 - Definitions

A. Wherever used in this Part, the terms listed below shall be construed in the following manner:

1. "Acupuncture" means the insertion of needles into the human body by piercing the skin of the body, for the purpose of controlling and regulating the flow and balance of energy in the body. For the purposes of this Part; "medical acupuncture" means acupuncture as practiced by physicians licensed under the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 5-37.

2. "Act" means R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 5-37 entitled "Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline."

3. "Board" means the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline or any committee or subcommittee thereof established under the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-37-1.1.

4. "Chief administrative officer" means the administrator of the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.

5. "Collaborative pharmacy practice" means that practice of pharmacy whereby a pharmacist with advanced training and experience relevant to the scope of collaborative practice agrees to work in collaboration with one (1) or more physicians for the purpose of drug therapy management of patients, such management to be pursuant to a protocol or protocols authorized by the physician(s) and subject to approval by the Department and any conditions and/or limitations thereto. A health care professional who has prescribing privileges and is employed by a collaborating physician may be in such an agreement.

6. "Compounding" means the act of combining two (2) or more ingredients as a result of a practitioners prescription or medication order occurring in the course of professional practice based upon the individual needs of a patient and a relationship between the practitioner, patient and pharmacists. Compounding does not mean the routine preparation, mixing, reconstitution or assembling od drug products that are essentially copies of a commercially available product. Pharmacy compounding includes the preparation of drugs or devices pursuant to a prescription or medication order or in anticipation or prescription or medication orders based upon routine, regularly observed prescribing patterns.

7. "Compounding sterile preparations" or "CSPs" means a sterile drug or nutrient compounded in a licensed pharmacy or other healthcare-related facility pursuant to the order of a licensed prescriber; the article may or may not contain sterile products.

8. "Department" means the Rhode Island Department of Health.

9. "Director" means the Director, Rhode Island Department of Health.

10. "Doctor of acupuncture" means a person who has been licensed under the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 5-37.2 to practice the art of healing known as acupuncture.

11. "Drug therapy management" means the review, in accordance with a collaborative practice agreement, of drug therapy regimen(s) of patients by a pharmacist for the purpose of rendering advice to one (1) or more physicians that are party to the agreement, or their physician designees, regarding adjustment of the regimen. Decisions involving drug therapy management shall be made in the best interests of the patient. In accordance with a collaborative practice agreement, drug therapy management may include:

a. Modifying and managing drug therapy;

b. Collecting and reviewing patient histories;

c. Obtaining and checking vital signs, including pulse, temperature, blood pressure, and respiration; and

d. Under the supervision of, or in direct consultation with a physician, ordering and evaluating the results of laboratory tests directly related to drug therapy when performed in accordance with approved protocols applicable to the practice setting and providing such evaluation does not include any diagnostic component.

12. "Foreign medical graduate" means a physician (individual) whose basic medical degree or qualification was conferred by an allopathic medical school located outside the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

13. "Good standing" means a licensee has an unrestricted license to practice medicine.

14. "Intern, resident, or fellow" means a physician in training in an accredited postgraduate training program.

15. "License" is synonymous with registration certificate.

16. "Medical malpractice" or "malpractice" means any tort, or breach of contract based on health care or professional services rendered, or which should have been rendered, by a physician, dentist, hospital, clinic, health maintenance organization or professional service corporation providing health care services and organized under R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 7-5.1, to a patient or the rendering of medically unnecessary services except at the informed request of the patient.

17. "Medical record" means a record of a patient's medical information and treatment history maintained by physicians and other medical personnel, which includes, but is not limited to, information related to medical diagnosis, immunizations, allergies, x-rays, copies of laboratory reports, records of prescriptions, and other technical information used in assessing the patient's health condition, whether such information is maintained in a paper or electronic format.

18. "Non-ablative treatment" means any laser/intense pulsed light treatment or other energy source, chemical, or modality that is not expected or intended to remove, burn, or vaporize tissue. This shall include treatments related to laser hair removal.

19. "Person" means any individual, partnership, firm corporation, (including, but not limited to, associations, joint stock companies, limited liability companies, and insurance companies), trust or estate, state or political subdivision or instrumentality of a State.

20. "Physician" means any person licensed to practice allopathic or osteopathic medicine pursuant to the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 5-37.

21. "Postgraduate training" means satisfactory training after earning the medical degree at an accredited program, or its equivalent as determined by the Board, including internship, residency and fellowship. Such training shall include one (1) year of internship and one (1) or two (2) years of progressive residency or comparable fellowship.

22. "Practice of medicine" means the practice of allopathic and osteopathic medicine. Any person shall be regarded as practicing medicine within the meaning of the Act who holds himself or herself out as being able to diagnose, treat, perform surgery, use a laser/intense pulsed light, or prescribe for any person for disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical or mental condition or prescribe for any person ill or alleged to be ill with disease, pain, injury, deformity or abnormal physical or mental condition, or who shall either profess to heal, offer or undertake, by any means or method, to diagnose, treat, perform surgery, or prescribe for any person for disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical or mental condition. In addition, one who attaches the title M.D., physician, surgeon, D.O., osteopathic physician and surgeon, or any other similar word or words or abbreviation to his or her name indicating that he or she is engaged in the treatment or diagnosis of the diseases, injuries or conditions of persons shall be held to be engaged in the practice of medicine. Non-ablative treatment is part of the practice of medicine.

23. "Prescriber" means a health care provider who is licensed in the State of Rhode Island who has prescribing privileges.

24. "Surgery" is performed for the purpose of structurally altering the human body by the incision or destruction of tissues and is part of the practice of medicine. Surgery also is the diagnostic or therapeutic treatment of conditions or disease processes by any instruments causing localized alteration or transposition of human tissue which include lasers, ultrasound, ionizing radiation, scalpels, probes, and needles. The tissue can be cut, burned, vaporized, frozen, sutured, probed, or manipulated by closed reductions for major dislocations or fractures, or otherwise altered by mechanical, thermal, light-based, electromagnetic, or chemical means. All of these surgical procedures are invasive, including those that are performed with lasers, and the risks of any surgical procedure are not eliminated by using a light knife or laser in place of a metal knife, or scalpel.

25. "Telemedicine" means, as defined in R.I. Gen. Laws § 27-81-3, the delivery of clinical healthcare services by use of real time, two (2) way synchronous audio, video, telephone-audio-only communications or electronic media or other telecommunications technology including but not limited to: online adaptive interviews, remote patient monitoring devises, audiovisual communications, including the application of secure video conferencing or store-and-forward technology to provide or support healthcare deliver, which facilitate the assessment, diagnosis, counseling an prescribing treatment and care management of a patient's healthcare while such patient is at an originating site and the healthcare provider is at a distant site, consistent with applicable Federal laws and Regulation. Telemedicine does not include an email message or facsimile transmission between the provider and patient, or an automated computer program used to diagnose and/or treat ocular or refractive conditions.

216 R.I. Code R. § 216-RICR-40-05-1.2

Amended effective 4/24/2022