13 Jan COVID-19: DORA issues emergency rules permitting veterinarians to administer COVID-19 vaccines
On January 13, all Colorado veterinary licensees received an email from DORA regarding new emergency rules for various health care professions. Click here to read the emergency rules from DORA.
- How do these rules impact veterinarians?
- Veterinarians and a number of other licensed health care professionals have temporarily been permitted to expand their scope of practice in order to administer COVID-19 vaccinations pursuant to the governor’s Executive Order D 2021 008. The emergency rules developed by DORA will temporarily permit certain licensed health care professionals including veterinarians to deliver the COVID-19 vaccination within inpatient, outpatient, and hospital settings as delegated by specific human health medical personnel.
- What is the purpose and intent of this order and these new rules?
- The intent of this order is to expand the workforce of trained medical personnel available to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Wasn’t there already an emergency rule put in place for veterinarians in 2020?
- A precursor Executive Order D 2020 038 that was nearly identical (but did not reference vaccines) was first issued on April 15, 2020, and has been renewed monthly since then with an additional veterinary rule added to expand the scope of veterinarians. This new executive order and emergency rule from DORA update those precursors to include administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Which health care professions does this impact?
- The affected professions are:
- Chiropractic
- Dental
- Nursing
- Occupational Therapy
- Optometry
- Physical Therapy
- Podiatry
- Respiratory Therapy
- Speech-Language Pathology
- Surgical Assistants/Surgical Technologists
- Veterinary
- The affected professions are:
- What are the limitations associated with these emergency rules?
- Veterinarians may administer the COVID-19 vaccination while working in a hospital, inpatient facility, or outpatient setting as delegated by physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice registered nurses, certified registered nurse anesthetists, or professional nurses.
- Veterinarians are authorized to perform this delegated service upon adequate cross-training as determined necessary by the hospital, inpatient facility, or outpatient setting.
- Veterinarians shall not accept delegation of this service if the licensee does not possess the knowledge, skill, or training to perform.
- Veterinarians shall not perform this delegated service if the licensee does not possess the knowledge, skill, or training to perform.
- This delegated service shall not be re-delegated to another person or licensee by the delegatee.
- Veterinarians shall not prescribe, order, or select the COVID-19 vaccination regardless of delegation.
- Veterinarians may administer the COVID-19 vaccination while working in a hospital, inpatient facility, or outpatient setting as delegated by physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice registered nurses, certified registered nurse anesthetists, or professional nurses.
- I want to help give COVID-19 vaccinations–how can I get involved?
- That’s great — thank you! The state of Colorado has a Volunteer Mobilizer website where medical and public health professionals can sign up to assist with public health care missions. Click here to register on the website to become a volunteer.