Bill > H2012

This bill aims to clarify the definition of "surgery" within the state's laws, specifically within Chapter 112 of the General Laws, which pertains to public health. It establishes that the Board of Registration in Medicine has the authority to define the practice of surgery and that surgery is exclusively limited to physicians licensed by this board. The bill defines surgery as any procedure that structurally alters the human body by cutting, destroying, or incising tissues, and it encompasses both diagnostic and therapeutic treatments using various instruments like lasers, ultrasound, scalpels, and needles. This definition includes cutting, burning, vaporizing, freezing, suturing, probing, or manipulating tissue, as well as closed reductions for major dislocations or fractures, and alterations made through mechanical, thermal, light-based, electromagnetic, or chemical means. Furthermore, injecting diagnostic or therapeutic substances into body cavities, internal organs, joints, sensory organs, and the central nervous system is also considered surgery, with an exception for certain injections administered by nursing personnel under a physician's order. The bill emphasizes that all these procedures are invasive and that the risks associated with them are not diminished by using tools like lasers instead of traditional scalpels. Importantly, the bill clarifies that it does not intend to alter or expand the existing scope of practice for any profession licensed under Chapter 112 as of the bill's passage.