Texas Medical Board Duties And Responsibilities made simple for everyone to easily understand. Unfortunately a lot of people use BIG WORDS to expand into areas that don’t include them. Instead of sticking to common terms that everyone understands, they use uncommon vocabulary to confuse people.
I want to go through the basic Texas Medical Board duties. I will also make examples using common terms, to help everyone to feel more comfortable talking about it. I want to compare the Medical Boards duties to more common jobs that regular folks have actually performed themselves.
My goal here is to create public interest in our Texas Healthcare System including the Texas Medical Board.
Five Duties Of Texas Medical Board
- Licensure
- Investigations
- Disciplinary Action
- Monitoring
- Standard Setting
What Does Licensure Mean In Medical Board Duties?
The Medical Board is responsible for giving doctors their job licence to work. In the State of Texas its illegal for doctors to be doctors without that state licenced. Of course doctors have to pay for their work permits, so the Medical Board collects that money from each doctor.
Example: Texas Department Of Public Safety (DPS) is responsible for issuing drivers license and identification cards. The overall process is the same here. People need their drivers license to drive, so they go through the Texas Department Of Public Safety.
Example: Texas Parks And Wildlife Department (TPWD) is responsible for issuing hunting and fishing license. Again the process of getting a hunting or fishing permit is generally the same as getting a medical license in Texas, the only thing different are the requirements. People apply for the permit, if the requirements are met they get the license.
The only thing different about the Texas Medical License process and getting your drivers license or fishing license is that its done through a different office and has diffrent requirements. The Texas Meidical Board is EQUAL to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Texas Parks And Wildlife (TPWD). All 3 agencies are responsible for issuing licences to the general public.
What Does Investigations Mean In Medical Board Duties?
Texas Medical Board duties include investigating the health care providers they granted licences to. If a doctor is accused of doing something against doctor rules, the Medical Board is supposed to investigate. They are supposed to see if any doctor laws have been broken.
Example: Texas Parks And Wildlife Department (TPWD) is a great example again. If a licenced fisherman is approached by a Texas Game Warden, they know to be ready to show the warden their licence and their catch. The Game Warden has the athority to “investigate” possible violations in Texas fishing rule / laws.
Example: Police / Cops are good examples of investigators. So to keep it very simple: if someone calls 911 and tells them that they heard a scream and they are concerned that someone may be in trouble. A police officer is called out to investigate the scream that made the other person think someone was in trouble.
Easier Example: Most of us are parents. If we are caring for a toddler and they find a spot out of view to play, we investigate by going to see what they are doing.
Texas Medical Board’s duties include investgating possible violations in State Medical Laws. If they have been alerted that someone is breaking a doctor law, then they are supposed to investigate.
What Does Disciplinary Action Mean In Medical Board Duties?
Medical Board “Disciplinary Action” might sound a bit intimidating, but it is not at all. The explanation of “Disciplinary Action” is very simple. Its the action or disciplining someone.
Example: General law enforcement or any kind of police take disciplinary action. If a driver gets caught speeding, a police officer pulls them over and gives them a ticket.
Example: A parent disciplines their child by time out, taking away a luxury or by swatting the back of their hand.
Example: A criminal robs a bank, the Department Of Justice will take disciplinary action and gives the criminal a prison sentence.
For most medical professional, they worked years to become a doctor. They chose to become doctors to help people or maybe even just because they wanted to be something that not just anyone could be. The Medical Boards “Disciplinary Action” doesn’t just protect patients. Those same “Disciplinary Actions” separate the best doctors from the people that have earned or don’t deserve the job title. If I was a doctor, I think I would welcome strong disciplinary actions.
What Does Monitoring Mean In Medical Board Duties?
Monitoring is exactly how it sounds. Texas Medical Board duties include monitoring or watching the exact same medical professions that are licenced through the TMB.
Example: A gardener plants a row of flowers, then watches as they grow over time.
Example: A construction suppervissor will monitor the progress of their construction project over time.
Example: A store manager will monitor the day to day events in their store.
If medical professional are licenced through the State of Texas, then they automatically agree to state monitoring by the Texas Medical Board. This duty is there to protect patients and other medical staff members.
What Does Standard Setting Mean In Medical Board Duties?
This duty of the Medical Board is one of my personal favorites. So the simple everyday explanation of this duty is to “LEAD BY EXAMPLE”. Texas Medical Board is supposed to represent any average doctor for standards. When the Medical Board sets medical standards, that means that anything less than standard is unexceptable because it would be substandard.
Standard setting could be the easiest duty in the entire world.
Example: If I go to McDonalds and get a Big Mac burger, I can expect to pick up the exact same burger at any McDonalds I go to. The McDonald’s company has made clear instrustions to their employees on how the product is made because that is their standard.
Example: When a student graduates from high school, that means that they have meet educational standards. The Texas Department of Education has defined what the educational standards are in the state.
Example: Religious leaders from all religions. So in general all religious leaders duties include defining their religions standard of humanity. The standards will change depending on that religions belief, but the action of setting standards for how we should live our lives is there in every religion.
Basically what setting standards as a Texas Medical Board duty is to tell other medical professionals holding a Texas Medical Licence what they can an cant do. So they literally draw the line between good doctor and bad doctor.
Then once those minimum standards are set, the board members should be working well above the minimum bar of expectations since they are the enforcers. No Medical Board member should barely be floating above standard performance.
From what I have seen lately from the Texas Medical Board is that the standards for medical professionals in Texas is really really LOW. From what I have seen so far – Anyone that graduates medical school can be licenced to practice medicine in the State of Texas. They are actively lowering medical standards for the purpose of maintaining medical licences to substandard medical professionals.
Directly From The Texas Medical Board Website:
“The mission of the Texas Medical Board is to protect and enhance the public’s health, safety and welfare by establishing and maintaining standards of excellence used in regulating the practice of medicine and ensuring quality health care for the citizens of Texas through licensure, discipline, and education.”