Senate Bill No. 522
(By Senators Plymale and Fanning)
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[Introduced March 24, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Health and Human Resources.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections four and ten, article three,
chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to
expanding the definition of "practice of podiatry" by
including the ankle; restricting surgical procedures on
ankles by podiatrists only upon being granted privileges to
do so by a hospital's medical staff credentialling
committee; and requiring any podiatrist who seeks to perform
surgery on the ankle to submit evidence that he or she has
received privileges to perform surgery from the medical
staff credentialling committee.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections four and ten, article three, chapter thirty of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. WEST VIRGINIA MEDICAL PRACTICE ACT.
§30-3-4. Definitions.
As used in this article:
(1) "Board" means the West Virginia board of medicine
established in section five of this article. Whenever any other
provision of this code refers to the "medical licensing board of
West Virginia", such the reference shall be construed to mean and
refer to the "West Virginia board of medicine" as created and
established in this article.
(2) "Medical peer review committee" means a committee of, or
appointed by, a state or local professional medical society, or
a committee of, or appointed by, a medical staff of a licensed
hospital, long-term care facility or other health care facility,
or any health care peer review organization as defined in section
one, article three-c of this chapter, or any other organization
of professionals in this state formed pursuant to state or
federal law and authorized to evaluate medical and health care
services.
(3) "Practice of medicine and surgery" means the diagnosis
or treatment of, or operation or prescription for, any human
disease, pain, injury, deformity or other physical or mental
condition.
(4) "Practice of podiatry" means the examination, diagnosis,
treatment, prevention and care of conditions and functions of the
human foot and ankle by medical, surgical and other scientific
knowledge and methods; with surgical treatment of the ankle
authorized only when a podiatrist has been granted privileges to
perform ankle surgery by a hospital's medical staff
credentialling committee based on the training and experience of
the podiatrist; and medical and surgical treatment of warts and
other dermatological lesions of the hand which similarly occur in
the foot. When a podiatrist uses other than local anesthesia, in
surgical treatment of the foot, such the anesthesia must be
administered by, or under the direction of, an anesthesiologist
or certified nurse anesthetist authorized under the state of West
Virginia to administer anesthesia. A medical evaluation shall be
made by a physician of every patient prior to the administration
of other than local anesthesia.
(5) "State director of health" means the state director of
health or his or her designee, which designee shall act as
secretary of the board and shall carry out any and all
responsibilities assigned in this article to the secretary of the
board.
§30-3-10. Licenses to practice medicine and surgery or podiatry.
(a) The board shall issue a license to practice medicine and surgery or to practice podiatry to any individual who is
qualified to do so in accordance with the provisions of this
article.
(b) For an individual to be licensed to practice medicine
and surgery in this state, he or she must meet the following
requirements:
(1) He or she shall submit an application to the board on a
form provided by the board and remit to the board a reasonable
examination fee, the amount of such a reasonable fee to be set by
the board. The application must, as a minimum, require a sworn
and notarized statement that the applicant is of good moral
character and that he or she is physically and mentally capable
of engaging in the practice of medicine and surgery;
(2) He or she must provide evidence of graduation and
receipt of the degree of doctor of medicine or its equivalent
from a school of medicine, which is approved by the liaison
committee on medical education or by the board;
(3) He or she must submit evidence to the board of having
successfully completed a minimum of one year of graduate clinical
training in a program approved by the accreditation council for
graduate medical education; and
(4) He or she must pass an examination approved by the
board, which examination can be related to a national standard.
The examination shall be in the English language and be designed to ascertain an applicant's fitness to practice medicine and
surgery. The board shall before the date of examination
determine what will constitute a passing score: Provided, That
the said board, or a majority of them, may accept in lieu of an
examination of applicants, the certificate of the national board
of medical examiners. If an applicant fails to pass the
examination on two occasions, he or she shall successfully
complete a course of study or training, as approved by the board,
designed to improve his or her ability to engage in the practice
of medicine and surgery, before being eligible for reexamination.
(c) In addition to the requirements of subsection (b)
hereof, any individual who has received the degree of doctor of
medicine or its equivalent from a school of medicine located
outside of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and
Canada, to be licensed to practice medicine in this state, must
also meet the following additional requirements and limitations:
(1) He or she must be able to demonstrate to the
satisfaction of the board his or her ability to communicate in
the English language;
(2) Before taking a licensure examination, he or she must
have fulfilled the requirements of the educational commission for
foreign medical graduates for certification, or he or she must
provide evidence of receipt of a passing score on the examination of the educational commission for foreign medical graduates; and
(3) He or she must submit evidence to the board of having
successfully completed a minimum of two years of graduate
clinical training in a program approved by the accreditation
council for graduate medical education.
(d) For an individual to be licensed to practice podiatry in
this state, he or she must meet the following requirements:
(1) He or she shall submit an application to the board on a
form provided by the board and remit to the board a reasonable
examination fee, the amount of such a reasonable fee to be set by
the board. The application must, as a minimum, require a sworn
and notarized statement that the applicant is of good moral
character and that he or she is physically and mentally capable
of engaging in the practice of podiatric medicine;
(2) He or she must provide evidence of graduation and
receipt of the degree of doctor of podiatric medicine and or its
equivalent from a school of podiatric medicine which is approved
by the council of podiatry education or by the board;
(3) He or she must pass an examination approved by the
board, which examination can be related to a national standard.
The examination shall be in the English language and be designed
to ascertain an applicant's fitness to practice podiatric
medicine. The board shall before the date of examination
determine what will constitute a passing score. If an applicant fails to pass the examination on two occasions, he or she shall
successfully complete a course of study or training, as approved
by the board, designed to improve his or her ability to engage in
the practice of podiatric medicine, before being eligible for
reexamination; and
(4) He or she must submit evidence to the board of having
successfully completed a minimum of one year of graduate clinical
training in a program approved by the council on podiatric
medical education, or the colleges of podiatric medicine. The
board may consider a minimum of two years of graduate podiatric
clinical training in the U. S. armed forces or three years
private podiatric clinical experience in lieu of this
requirement. In addition to the above, a podiatrist who seeks to
perform surgery on the ankle must submit evidence that the
medical staff credentialling committee of a hospital has granted
the podiatrist privileges to perform this surgery.
(e) All licenses to practice medicine and surgery granted
prior to the first day of July, first one thousand nine hundred
ninety-one, and valid on that date, shall continue in full effect
for such the term and under such conditions as provided by law at
the time of the granting of the license: Provided, That the
provisions of subsection (d) of this section shall may not apply
to any person legally entitled to practice chiropody or podiatry in this state prior to the eleventh day of June, one thousand
nine hundred sixty-five: Provided, however, That all persons
licensed to practice chiropody prior to the eleventh day of June,
one thousand nine hundred sixty-five, shall be permitted to use
the term "chiropody-podiatry" and shall have the rights,
privileges and responsibilities of a podiatrist set out in this
article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to expand the definition
of podiatry to include the ankle and to restrict within the
definition surgical procedures to the ankle "only when a
podiatrist has been granted privileges to perform ankle surgery
by a hospital's medical staff credentialling committee."
Finally, it requires podiatrists who seek to perform surgery on
the ankle to submit evidence that they have received privileges
to perform surgery from the medical staff credentialling
committee.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.