Section 1200-06-01-.26 - PERSONNEL EXEMPT FROM LICENSUREAll testing performed in a medical laboratory shall be performed by licensed personnel. Medical laboratory personnel and certain other health care professionals shall be exempt from licensure to perform the following functions or specialties under the provisions and conditions as stated herein:
(1)(a) Personnel performing specimen collection shall be exempt from licensure, providing that the specimen collection procedure is performed under the supervision of a physician, medical laboratory director, supervisor or technologist.(b) When blood is withdrawn from a patient in a home for the aged, nursing home, residential hospice, or recuperative center, or from a patient of a home care organization, the procedure must be performed by:1. a trained phlebotomist, or2. a person who has been properly trained to draw blood and who has been licensed in this state by the appropriate board for the respective health care profession of such person.(c) Records verifying appropriate training of phlebotomists must be maintained by licensed facilities as listed in paragraph (1)(b) above and be available for inspection.(2) Personnel performing Waived and Point of Care laboratory testing shall be exempt from licensure, provided such testing is performed in accordance with rules 1200-06-03-.16 and 1200-06-03-.17 governing Medical Laboratories.(3) Personnel employed in laboratories licensed under T.C.A. § 68-29-138.(4) All personnel performing the testing described in Rule 1200-06-03-.02(5) in the laboratory (or portion of the otherwise licensed laboratory) exempted from licensure pursuant to that rule.(5) Public Health Clinic Laboratory Practitioners are exempt to perform public health clinic laboratory tests in state or county health departments. (a) A Public Health Clinic Laboratory Practitioner is a person with at least a high school diploma who has successfully completed a Public Health Clinic Laboratory Practitioner training program approved by the Board. The practitioner's scope of practice is limited to these laboratory procedures set out below.(b) Public health clinic laboratory tests are:3. Qualitative Pregnancy Test4. Blood Glucose/Semi-Quantitative5. Wet Mount (Trichomonas and Yeast)(6) Medical students performing any laboratory tests on their own patients, provided that this performance is a function of their training, shall not be required to have a license; provided that results of such laboratory studies by medical students shall not constitute an official laboratory report and shall not be recorded on official laboratory report forms.(7) Regional public health laboratory personnel exempt pursuant to T.C.A. § 68-29-104(11).Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1200-06-01-.26
Original rule filed May 3, 1995; effective July 17, 1995. Amendment filed January 7, 1997; effective March 23, 1997. Amendment filed February 14, 2000; effective April 29, 2000. Amendment filed August 25, 2003; effective November 8, 2003. Rule was previously numbered 1200-06-01-.25 but was renumbered 1200-06-01-.26 with the introduction of a new rule 1200-06-01-.25 filed January 13, 2022; effective April 13, 2022. Amendments filed January 13, 2022; effective 4/13/2022.Authority: T.C.A. §§ 4-5-202, 4-5-204, 68-29-103, 68-29-104, and 68-29-105.