Sec. 604.001. DEFINITIONS

In this chapter:

(1) "Board" means the Texas Board of Health.

(2) "Department" means the Texas Department of Health.

(3) "Respiratory care" means the treatment, management, control, diagnostic evaluation, or care of a patient who has a deficiency or abnormality associated with the cardiorespiratory system.

(4) "Respiratory care practitioner" means a person who holds a certificate or temporary permit under this chapter to practice respiratory care.

(5) "Respiratory care procedure" means respiratory care provided by the therapeutic and diagnostic use of medical gases, humidifiers, and aerosols, the administration of drugs and medications to the cardiorespiratory system, ventilatory assistance and ventilatory control, postural drainage, chest drainage, chest percussion or vibration, breathing exercises, respiratory rehabilitation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the maintenance of natural airways, and the insertion and maintenance of artificial airways. The term includes a technique used to assist in diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, and research, as ordered by a patient's physician, including:

(A) the measurement of ventilatory volumes, pressures, and flows;

(B) the specimen collection of blood and other materials;

(C) pulmonary function testing; and

(D) hemodynamic and other related physiological forms of monitoring or treating the cardiorespiratory system.

Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.