O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 31-7-161 (2019)

Appointment to staff of medical facility or institution

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) A medical facility or institution may provide for the appointment of health service provider psychologists on such terms and conditions as the medical facility or institution shall establish. Psychologists shall be eligible to hold membership and serve on committees of the medical or professional staff and may possess clinical privileges and carry professional responsibilities consistent with the scope of their licensure and their competence, subject to the reasonable rules of the medical facility or institution. Such privileges and responsibilities may include issuing a psychologist’s order. A physician shall be designated to be responsible for the medical aspects of care for a patient admitted by a psychologist.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law:

(1) A health service provider psychologist is authorized to issue a psychologist’s order to a registered professional nurse or a licensed practical nurse; and

(2) A registered professional nurse and a licensed practical nurse shall have the authority to execute a psychologist’s order, provided that a registered professional nurse or licensed practical nurse may confer with the health service provider psychologist prior to executing the psychologist’s order. Nothing contained in this article shall be deemed to alter the standard of care of the registered professional nurse or the licensed practical nurse applicable to the evaluation and execution of orders, including a psychologist’s order.

History

Code 1981, § 31-7-161, enacted by Ga. L. 1983, p. 1426, § 2; Ga. L. 1997, p. 911, § 3.

Annotations

Code Commission notes. - Pursuant

to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1997, ‘‘psychologist’s’’ was substituted for ‘‘psychologists’s’’ in the second sentence of paragraph (b)(2).