STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2257

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2103

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2103 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify that registered nurses are required to use reasonable judgment in carrying out the orders of a physician that are delivered through a physician assistant acting as an agent of the supervising physician.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Board of Nursing, Hawaii State Center for Nursing, Hawaii Academy of Physician Assistants, the Puna Community Medical Center, Hawaii Medical Association, and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses and two individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that physician assistants do not just deliver the orders of a physician.  Rather, physician assistants are licensed to order diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and write orders for medications per the physician-approved preauthorized practice agreement within their scope of practice.  This measure allows physician assistants to provide valuable medical care to the full extent of their practice and under physician supervision.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Amending the definition of "the practice of nursing as a registered nurse" to authorize nurses to carry out orders of a licensed physician assistant who is practicing with physician supervision pursuant to chapter 453, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and acting as an agent of the supervising physician, rather than the orders of a physician delivered through a physician assistant; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2103, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2103, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair