§ 63-27-110 — Exemptions

(a) (1) Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit: (A) Any person licensed or certified to practice any of the other health-related professions in this state under any other law from engaging in the practice for which such person is licensed or certified; or (B) Persons employed as subsidiary workers who do not represent themselves to be registered respiratory therapists, certified respiratory therapists or assistants from assisting in the respiratory care of patients under the direction and supervision of a licensed physician. (2) As used in this section, "subsidiary worker" means an individual who occasionally administers oxygen or other therapeutic gas under the orders of a licensed physician, osteopath or doctor of dentistry, and who is not involved in any other aspect of the direct delivery of respiratory care procedures or the administration of diagnostic tests of the cardio-respiratory function. "Subsidiary worker" does not include an individual who delivers and installs respiratory care equipment in hospitals, in the home and in alternate care sites. (b) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to apply to a registered nurse or to a licensed practical nurse employed by a licensed nursing home when such person is under the supervision of a registered nurse or a licensed physician, and so long as such licensed practical nurse does not maintain and manage life support systems. (c) With respect to licensed health care professionals that lawfully engage in the practice of respiratory care within the scope of practice of their professions, the board may develop mechanisms and standards for ensuring the competency of such licensed professionals in their practice of respiratory care, and may recommend to the health-related board for each such profession that that board adopt, by rule or otherwise, mechanisms and standards for ensuring competency in the practice of respiratory care; provided, that the board has no authority to regulate a health care professional subject to regulation by another health-related board. (d) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting the practice of respiratory care by students while they are under the supervision of instructors in any respiratory care educational program that has been approved by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), or its successor organization, so long as the students' activities are not performed for compensation and so long as the students wear an appropriate badge indicating their status as students. (e) Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit self-care by the patient or the gratuitous care by a friend or member of the family who does not represent or hold out to be a respiratory care practitioner certified under this chapter. (f) Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit an individual who holds a credential from the National Board for Respiratory Care entitled "certified pulmonary function technologist (CPFT)" or "registered pulmonary function technologist (RPFT)" from engaging in the performance of pulmonary function diagnostic testing.

Legislative History

Acts 1986, ch. 610, § 1; 1987, ch. 192, §§ 4-7; 1993, ch. 86, §2; 1995, ch. 368, § 1; T.C.A. § 63-6-410; Acts 1998, ch. 1106, §§ 27, 29, 51, 52, 55, 58; 2000, ch. 621, §§ 3, 7, 8.