H. B. 2524
(By Delegates Facemyer, Jenkins,
Capito and Beach)
[Introduced March 13, 1997; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article three, chapter
thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to expanding the
definition of "practice of podiatry" by including the ankle;
and restricting surgical procedures on ankles by podiatrists
only upon being granted privileges to do so by a hospital's
medical staff credentialing committee.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article three, chapter thirty of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted 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 credentialing
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.
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 credentialing committee based on
the training and experience of the podiatrist.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.