H-1284.1  _______________________________________________

 

                          HOUSE BILL 1535

          _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

 

By Representatives Sherstad, Cody, Dyer, Murray, Cooke, O'Brien, Cooper, Wolfe, Cole, Veloria, Butler, Ogden, Anderson, Mason and Van Luven

 

Read first time 01/29/97.  Referred to Committee on Health Care.

Declaring a naturopath a health care practitioner for certain purposes.


    AN ACT Relating to naturopathic health care practitioners; and reenacting and amending RCW 18.135.020.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

    Sec. 1.  RCW 18.135.020 and 1994 sp.s. c 9 s 719 and 1994 c 76 s 1 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

    As used in this chapter:

    (1) "Secretary" means the secretary of health.

    (2) "Health care assistant" means an unlicensed person who assists a licensed health care practitioner in providing health care to patients pursuant to this chapter.  However persons trained by a federally approved end-stage renal disease facility who perform end-stage renal dialysis are exempt from certification under this chapter.

    (3) "Health care practitioner" means:

    (a) A physician licensed under chapter 18.71 RCW;

    (b) An osteopathic physician or surgeon licensed under chapter 18.57 RCW, or a naturopath licensed under chapter 18.36A RCW; or

    (c) Acting within the scope of their respective licensure, a podiatric physician and surgeon licensed under chapter 18.22 RCW or a registered nurse or advanced registered nurse practitioner licensed under chapter 18.79 RCW.

    (4) "Supervision" means supervision of procedures permitted pursuant to this chapter by a health care practitioner who is physically present and is immediately available in the facility during the administration of injections, as defined in this chapter, but need not be present during procedures to withdraw blood.

    (5) "Health care facility" means any hospital, hospice care center, licensed or certified health care facility, health maintenance organization regulated under chapter 48.46 RCW, federally qualified health maintenance organization, renal dialysis center or facility federally approved under 42 C.F.R. 405.2100, blood bank federally licensed under 21 C.F.R. 607, or clinical laboratory certified under 20 C.F.R. 405.1301‑16.

    (6) "Delegation" means direct authorization granted by a licensed health care practitioner to a health care assistant to perform the functions authorized in this chapter which fall within the scope of practice of the delegator and which are not within the scope of practice of the delegatee.

 


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