(a) A licensed physician, occupational therapist or licensed occupational therapy assistant may delegate to an unlicensed person specific routine tasks associated with nontreatment aspects of occupational therapy practice that are not evaluative, assessive, task selective or recommendational in nature and do not require making decisions or making assessment or treatment entries in official patient records, if the following conditions are met:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 63-13-207

  • Occupational therapist: means a person licensed to engage in occupational therapy practice under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 63-13-103
  • Occupational therapy assistant: means a person licensed to assist in occupational therapy practice under the supervision of an occupational therapist. See Tennessee Code 63-13-103
  • Occupational therapy practice: includes , but is not limited to:
    (i) Screening, evaluation, assessment, planning, implementation, or discharge planning in order to determine an occupational therapy treatment diagnosis, prognosis, plan of therapeutic intervention, or discharge plan, or to assess the ongoing effect of intervention. See Tennessee Code 63-13-103
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) The physician, occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant accepts professional responsibility for the performance of that duty by the person to whom it is delegated. In the case of duties delegated by an occupational therapy assistant, the occupational therapy assistant, the physician and occupational therapist who supervises the occupational therapy assistant shall be responsible;
(2) The unlicensed person does not perform any duties that require licensure under this chapter; and
(3) The physician, occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant ensures that the unlicensed person has been appropriately trained for the performance of the tasks.
(b) Tasks that may be delegated may include:

(1) Transporting of patients;
(2) Preparing or setting up a work area or equipment;
(3) Routine department maintenance or housekeeping activities;
(4) Taking care of patient’s personal needs during treatments; and
(5) Clerical, secretarial or administrative duties.
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