According to the American Medical Association (AMA), scope of practice is defined as the activities a licensed health professional is authorized to perform, as determined by state laws and regulations established by relevant licensing bodies. Healthcare practitioners (and others) are susceptible to lawful medical malpractice claims when they do not operate within their licensed scope of practice
Medical malpractice claims where a healthcare provider worked outside of their licensed scope of practice include the following examples:
- Providing a medical diagnosis when not licensed and/or trained to do so.
- Administering medication,including over-the-counter (OTC) medication when not licensed and/or trained to administer medication.
- Providing medical procedures without proper medical licensure or authorization to do so, such as removing an IV line without medical direction that was originally inserted on doctor’s orders.
There is a relatively new term in healthcare called SCOPE CREEP. Scope creep refers to medical procedures that are increasingly practiced by healthcare professionals that are not doctors.
There is great debate that scope creep improves a patient’s accessibility to healthcare with better/effective timelines; however, the AMA states allowing other healthcare providers beyond doctors to perform doctor-related care can compromise a client’s safety plus increase the risks of medical error, and the associated costs.
Despite today’s modern scope creep practices, to minimize risks and prevent medical errors, it is critical to only practice within your licensed scope, because medical malpractice can be proven when a provider operates outside of their licensed scope and the client is injured as a result of that treatment.
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