TMB No Longer Requiring Practices to Follow COVID-19 Safe-Practice Standards
By David Doolittle

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The Texas Medical Board’s (TMB) minimum safe-practice standards are no longer in place, the Texas Medical Association has learned. However, TMB recommends practices continue to follow federal guidelines to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

The standards, which were created in April, required physicians and practices to implement several safety measures, including wearing N95 masks and face shields when within 6 feet of a patient, and screening patients for potential COVID-19 symptoms before any encounter.

TMB officials said the standards expired in October after Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order in September that reauthorized non-emergent elective surgeries at hospitals in Texas.

“When TMB issues specific mandates related to a governor’s order, those mandates have to follow the life of the executive order,” a TMB official told Texas Medicine Today.

Since then, Governor Abbott has removed all state mandates on wearing masks and allows all businesses to open at 100% capacity starting March 10.

Although state mask mandates have been lifted, practices can still require patients, staff, and visitors to adhere the minimum safe-practice standards.

Last Updated On

June 11, 2021

Originally Published On

March 05, 2021

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