Definitions

Definitions. The following terms shall have the meaning set forth below, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. “Board” shall mean the Mississippi State Board of Physical Therapy. 2. “License” shall mean the document of licensure issued by the Board. 3. “Act” shall mean the "Mississippi Physical Therapy Practice Law" sections 73-23-31 et seq. of Mississippi Code of 1972, annotated. 4. “Examination” shall mean a national examination approved by the Board for the licensure of a Physical Therapist or a Physical Therapist Assistant. 5. “Physical therapy” or “physiotherapy,” are terms that are deemed identical and interchangeable, means the art and science of a health specialty concerned with the prevention of disability, and the physical rehabilitation for congenital or acquired physical or mental disabilities, resulting from or secondary to injury or disease. 6. “Practice of physical therapy” shall mean the practice of the health specialty and encompass physical therapy evaluation, treatment, planning, treatment administration, instruction, and consultative services, including but not limited to: a. Performing and interpreting tests and measurements as an aid to physical therapy treatment, for the purpose of correcting or alleviating any physical condition and to prevent the development of any physical or mental disability within the scope of physical therapy; and the performance of neuromuscular-skeletal tests and measurements as an aid in diagnosis, evaluation, or determination of the existence of and the extent of any body malfunction and to assess ongoing effects of intervention. Mississippi State Board of Physical Therapy Electromyography (EMG)/nerve conduction studies may be performed by a licensed physical therapist who is certified in electromyography by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialists (ABPTS). b. Planning initial and subsequent treatment programs, on the basis of test findings; and c. Administering treatment by therapeutic exercise, neuro-developmental procedures, therapeutic massage/manual therapy, mechanical devices and therapeutic agents, which employ the physical, chemical and other properties of air, water, heat, cold, electricity, sound and radiant energy for the purpose of correcting or alleviating any physical condition or preventing the development of any physical or mental disability. Telehealth is an appropriate model of service delivery when it is provided in a manner consistent with the standards of practice, ethical principles, rules and regulations for Mississippi physical therapy practitioners. Intramuscular dry needling manual therapy may be performed by a licensed physical therapist who has met the criteria as described in these rules and regulations. 7. “Physical therapist (PT)” means a person licensed in this state to practice physical therapy as defined in these regulations, and whose license is in good standing. 8. “Physical therapist assistant (PTA)” means a person who is licensed in this state and who assists a physical therapist in the provision of physical therapy under the direct, on-site supervision of the physical therapist. The physical therapist assistant may perform physical therapy procedures and related tasks that have been selected and delegated by the supervising physical therapists, but shall not perform the following physical therapy activities: interpretation of referrals; physical therapy initial evaluation/screening and reevaluation; identification, determination or modification of plans of care (including goals and treatment programs); final discharge assessment/evaluation or establishment of the discharge plan; or therapeutic techniques beyond the skill and knowledge of the physical therapist assistant. 9. “Referral” means the written or oral designation of physical therapy services by a doctor of medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, podiatry, or chiropractic, physician assistant, or by a nurse practitioner, holding a license in good standing under the laws of the state of Mississippi, another state, a territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia. The instruction may be as detailed or as general as the doctor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner in his or her sound discretion deems necessary in the particular case. 10. “Direct, on-site supervision” means face-to-face oversight by a licensed physical therapist at regular intervals, as prescribed in these regulations adopted by the Board, of the services provided to a patient by a licensed physical therapist assistant. 11. “Direct supervision” means face-to-face oversight at regular intervals of a physical therapist issued a temporary license under Part 3103 Rule 1.4 of these regulations by a licensed physical therapist. 12. “Face-to-face” means within each other’s sight or presence at regular intervals. 13. “Regular intervals” means every sixth treatment day or fourteenth calendar day, whichever comes first.