practice partner
office consult
The purpose of this column is to answer questions about issues that we either hear about frequently, or
that have a wide applicability across the profession. If you have any questions or topic suggestions for
this column, please email them to [email protected], or contact the Physician Advisory Service.
Delegating a
controlled act
Physicians must always
provide appropriate level
of supervision
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T
and judgment. Under the Regulated Health
he Physician Advisory Service
Professions Act, physicians are legally entitled
frequently receives calls from
to perform 13 of the 14 controlled acts conphysicians seeking advice about
tained in the legislation. The
delegation. Which
acts range from communicatcontrolled acts can be deling a diagnosis to administeregated? How do you go about
ing a substance by inhalation
delegating? Who can do what?
You are responsible
or injection. For a complete
Recent inquiries have come
for making the choice list, please visit Ontario.ca/
from sexual health clinics;
physicians setting up research
to delegate and you laws/statute.
The legislation permits
studies; public health mobile
must do so safely
controlled acts to be delunits; occupational health ofand carefully
egated, but it doesn’t offer any
fices; and cardiology units.
details about how delegation
The confusion stems from
should take place. In order
misperceptions about “conto ensure patient safety, many
trolled acts” – acts which legisof the regulated health professional colleges
lation states can only be performed by certain
have policies or guidelines about delegation.
professionals because they can be dangerous if
The CPSO’s Delegation of Controlled Acts
performed without adequate knowledge, skill
Issue 1, 2016 Dialogue
29