Statement by David C. Fleeger, MD
President, Texas Medical Association
Let me be clear.
As I stated in my May installation address, “It is because we are professionals that we lead, supervise, educate, and monitor the other members of our health care team. They do not know what we know. They cannot do what we do.”
Nonphysician practitioners (NPPs) work for physicians. That’s our official policy. That’s what we work for at the Texas Legislature, in the United States Congress, in the courts, and in regulatory agencies. That’s why we defeated more than 20 scope-of-practice expansion bills during the 2019 legislative session. Your association – and I – remain firm in this principle.
As your president, I apologize for a poorly worded recent article on a Texas Medical Association CME course on hiring and supervising NPPs. The intent was to point out that physicians should strategically utilize NPPs for tasks they are trained to complete safely under physician supervision. They are valued members of the health care team. But they are not physicians, nor do they replace physicians.
As physicians we are dedicated to an uncompromising and unconflicted regard for the patient’s benefit and best interest. This is the nature of the patient-physician relationship. Nothing will change that. Period.
Last Updated On
August 01, 2019
Originally Published On
August 01, 2019