P.R. Laws tit. 20, § 132e
The Board shall have the following duties and responsibilities:
(a) To enforce this chapter.
(b) To promulgate fair, impartial and nondiscriminatory rules and regulations to comply with this chapter and to discharge its obligations pursuant thereto.
(c) To select and/or administer licensure examinations.
(d) To enforce the policies and guidelines relative to the medical practice and its regulations, as established by the Board.
(e) To evaluate the medical education and the training of candidates.
(f) To evaluate the previous professional experience of candidates.
(g) To issue or deny initial licenses or approved licenses.
(h) To keep the records of licensees safe and complete.
(i) To approve or deny for just cause the applications for license renewal.
(j) To develop and implement methods to identify the physicians who violates the Medical Discipline and Licensure Board Act, this chapter.
(k) To receive, evaluate, investigate and adjudicate complaints.
(l) To review and investigate reports received from the security agencies of the Commonwealth, the health care organizations, the government agencies, the insuring companies, and other entities that have information relative to the professional practice of physicians, after which the Board is to decide and take action in connection therewith if warranted.
(m) To share information from investigations in their initial stages with any other medical boards.
(n) To issue subpoenas, subpoenas duces tecum, administer oaths, receive testimonies and conduct hearings.
(o) To discipline licensees who are in violation of the laws and regulations pertaining to the practice of medicine.
(p) To issue an acknowledgment of receipt for the complaints or any other adverse information submitted by persons or entities that apprise the Board and notify the final resolution of the matter thus informed.
(q) To develop and implement methods to identify incompetent physicians who fail to meet the precautionary standards of the profession.
(r) To develop and implement methods to evaluate and improve the practice of physicians.
(s) To develop and implement methods that ensure continuity as to the competence of licensees.
(t) To bring investigation actions motu proprio and impose fines for violations of laws governing the practice of medicine; Provided, That the Board may not impose fines without holding a hearing first.
(u) To establish appropriate fees and charges for support activities and for the effective applicability of its legal responsibilities.
(v) To periodically reorganize the administrative and operational component through performance assessment methods; to professionalize the personnel and update technology.
(w) To develop and adopt a budget.
(x) To develop educational programs to ease acquaintance with the provisions contained in the Medical Discipline and Licensure Board Act, this chapter, and to ease the public into being informed as to the role and the functions of the Board.
(y) To develop and implement methods to evaluate and improve medical practice.
(z) To designate committees and sub-committees as it may deem necessary to discharge its functions by selecting from among its members and from groups of experts in the various areas of health and the community.
(aa) To apply the Code of Ethics that shall govern the conduct of its members.
(bb) To develop an institutional policy that prohibits and prevents conflicts of interest, to be reviewed annually. Such policy shall be consistent with the following: no member of the Board acting in such capacity or as a member of a Committee created pursuant to this chapter shall participate in the decision-making process or take any action that affects his/her own interests, whether personal, professional or financial, and/or those of a relative and/or professional colleague and/or business partner.
(cc) To notify disciplinary decisions, licenses denied and limitations on or voluntary relinquishment of license by a physician, with any limitation or relinquishment accompanying a license pertaining to the licensee, with any order issued by the Board, fact findings and conclusions of law. The information is to be remitted to the Federation Physician Data Center of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, to the College of Medical Surgeons of Puerto Rico, and to any other entity that operates as a data repository as required by law, and to notify all actions, denials and limitations or relinquishments related to licensees, with the same accreditation documentation, to the national physician data centers recognized by the Board or to the entity required by law.
(dd) To halt conducts by non-licensees who practice medicine illegally and have persons engaged in such actions prosecuted.
(ee) To institute proceedings in courts with competent jurisdiction to enforce orders of the Board and the provisions of this chapter.
(ff) To recommend, supervise and evaluate personnel pursuant to the human resources procedures of the Commonwealth.
(gg) To establish institutional policies that facilitate the operations of the Board.
(hh) To propose recommendations to the Legislature to make changes or amendments to this chapter that inure to the benefit of the public health, safety and welfare.
(ii) To issue a notice of the receipt of any complaint or other attached information to those persons or entities who lodge a complaint with the Board. Likewise, the Board shall have the duty to notify the final adjudication of the matter thus reported.
(jj) To establish the procedures and mechanisms to successfully exchange information with other jurisdictions regarding the licenses to practice medicine that have been granted, suspended or revoked.
(kk) To make readily accessible through its webpage, all the documents and forms required from physicians as part of the proceedings instituted in the Board.
Provided, That Board members shall be under the obligation to notify any matter in which there is a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest and they shall disqualify themselves from participating in the stages involving the consideration and decision-making process in relation to said matter. For the first case, they must disqualify themselves. For the second case, they may ask to be disqualified or present the case before the Board itself, which shall determine whether or not they should disqualify themselves. If the official with the conflict of interest conceals or keeps quiet about such conflict, this shall constitute grounds for requesting immediate severance from office. The matter shall be referred to the Governor in order to begin the removal process pursuant to the provisions in the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3.
History —Aug. 1, 2008, No. 139, § 8, eff. Jan 1, 2009.