(a) Mental or physical examination requirement. The board may require a licensee to submit to a mental and/or physical examination by a physician or physicians designated by the board if the board has probable cause to believe that the licensee is impaired. Impairment is present if one appears to be unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of age, illness, drunkenness, excessive use of drugs, narcotics, chemicals, or any other type of material; or as a result of any mental or physical condition. Probable cause may include, but is not limited to, any one of the following:
  (1) sworn statements from two people, willing to testify before the board, medical board, or the State Office of Administrative Hearings that a certain licensee is impaired;
  (2) a sworn statement from an official representative of the Texas Society of Surgical Assistants stating that the representative is willing to testify before the board that a certain licensee is impaired;
  (3) evidence that a licensee left a treatment program for alcohol or chemical dependency before completion of that program;
  (4) evidence that a licensee is guilty of intemperate use of drugs or alcohol;
  (5) evidence of repeated arrests of a licensee for intoxication;
  (6) evidence of recurring temporary commitments of a licensee to a mental institution; or
  (7) medical records indicating that a licensee has an illness or condition which results in the inability to function properly in his or her practice.
(b) Chapter 180 of this title (relating to Texas Physician Health Program and Rehabilitation Orders) shall be applied to surgical assistants who are believed to be impaired and eligible for the Texas Physician Health Program. Rehabilitation orders entered into on or before January 1, 2010, shall be governed by law as it existed immediately before that date.

Source Note: The provisions of this §184.21 adopted to be effective September 19, 2002, 27 TexReg 8771; amended to be effective January 9, 2003, 28 TexReg 72; amended to be effective January 24, 2016, 41 TexReg 623