Individuals in J-1 status who are not issued DS-2019s by ECFMG in the physician category are not eligible to engage in any patient contact or care at CU Denver. This prohibition against patient care and patient contact also applies to H-1B’s who are foreign physicians not licensed in Colorado or foreign physicians coming to the U.S. on a B visitor visa for the sole purpose of observing medical practices in the U.S.
How do we define “patient contact” or “patient care” in this context? University Counsel provided this response,
“This is a Colorado Board of Medical Examiners licensing issue. Since the visiting individual will not be licensed to practice medicine within the state of Colorado, they will not be able to administer or have direct patient care responsibilities. To practice as a foreign individual within the state, the individual must have a faculty appointment within the School of Medicine, and there must be a strong justification as to why that person needs to have practicing credentials. The statute that addresses this is C.R.S. § 12-33-107.2, and the regulations that implement the statute are 3 CCR 713-33; Rule 140. Foreign physicians may shadow with approval but cannot administer any type of patient care or practice medicine on any level without the correct Distinguished Foreign Teaching Professional license from the State B.M.E.”
For additional information regarding the risks and potential liabilities of engaging in patient care or contact without an appropriate license, we invite you to contact Professional Risk Management (P.R.M.) within the School of Medicine. P.R.M. identifies and evaluates actual and potential areas of risk associated with patients, working toward preventing medical malpractice and its associated legal actions. Patient contact is communicating with or touching the patient in any way. If rapport is established with the patient on any level, that patient may name the observing physician in a notice of claim when filing a malpractice suit against the University. This is an issue since that individual does not have the credentials to engage in patient contact/care. Observing Physicians should be doing just that, observing with their eyes and ears and nothing else.
For more information on these limitations, please get in touch with Professional Risk Management in the School of Medicine by calling the general line at 303-724-7475. If Professional Risk Management receives a question regarding how an individual’s activities interact with their immigration status, they will refer the individual or department to ISSS. For J exchange visitor issues, please send a message to [email protected]. For employment-based visa issues, please send a message to [email protected].