(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) evidence that a licensee left a treatment program
for alcohol or chemical dependency before completion of that program;
(3) evidence that a licensee is guilty of intemperate
use of drugs or alcohol;
(4) evidence of repeated arrests of a licensee for
intoxication;
(5) evidence of recurring temporary commitments of
a licensee to a mental institution; or
(6) 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 medical
physicists 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.
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