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Oregon Health Licensing Agency: Agency Subdivisions

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The following volunteer citizen boards and councils, and one licensing program, are under the agency’s administrative oversight.

 

Board of Athletic Trainers
Statutory Authority: ORS 688.701–688.734

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed board consists of three practicing athletic trainers, one physician and one public member.

 

Athletic trainers prevent, recognize and evaluate athletic injuries and provide immediate care, rehabilitation and reconditioning services to athletes. Athletic trainers work in cooperation with physicians and other allied health personnel and function as an integral member of the athletic health care team at secondary schools, colleges and universities, sports medicine clinics, professional sports programs and other athletic health care settings.

 

Board of Body Art Practitioners
Statutory Authority: ORS 690.350–690.992

Duties and Responsibilities: Board members are appointed by the governor to four year terms, and are eligile for reappointment. There are seven members: two licensed to perform tattooing; two licensed to perform body piercing, dermal implanting or scarification; one licensed to perform electrolysis; one licensed to practice medicine, nursing or naturopathic medicine, and one public member.

Tattoo artists and permanent color technicians mark or color the skin by inserting nontoxic dyes or pigments into or under the subcutaneous portion of the skin using single-use or sterile needles to form indelible marks for figurative, decorative, cosmetic or medical purposes.

Body piercing technicians puncture parts of the body to create a permanent hole for ornamentation. Body piercing technicians must be registered, work in licensed facilities. and adhere to stringent universal precautions for sterilization of needles and equipment, biohazard waste disposal and infection control practices formulated to state and national standards.

Electrologists, through a series of treatments, permanently remove hair from the skin by inserting a sterile needle-conductor into the hair follicle and directing electrical energy toward the hair cell.

Dermal implanting licensees insert an object under the skin, while scarification licensees create injury to the skin to produce a scar on a live human being, for permanent ornamentation or decoration.

 

Board of Cosmetology
Statutory Authority: ORS 690.005–690.992

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed board consists of six certified practitioners and one public member.

 

Cosmetologists earn certification in one or more of four individual fields of practice: barbering, hair design, esthetics and nail technology. As defined in state statute, “cosmetology” means the art or science of beautifying and improving the skin, nails and hair, and includes the study of cosmetics and their application.

 

Board of Denture Technology
Statutory Authority: ORS 680.500–680.990

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed board consists of four denturists, one dentist and two public members.

 

Denturists construct, repair, reline, reproduce, duplicate, supply, fit or alter removable prosthetic dental appliances — otherwise known as dentures. In the fitting process, denturists also take impressions, bite registrations, try-ins or insertions. Denturists provide full dentures to replace complete sets of original teeth that are missing in the upper, lower or both sections of the mouth, or partial dentures which fit sections of the mouth in which some of the original teeth remain.

 

Environmental Health Registration Board
Statutory Authority: ORS 700.005–700.995

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed board consists of four registered environmental health specialists, one physician licensed in Oregon to practice medicine or surgery and certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, one representative of the food or food/alcoholic beverage retail industry and one public member.

 

Environmental health specialists promote the control of infectious disease through environmental hygiene by enforcing health and safety standards relating to food, water and consumer products. Environmental health specialists collect, analyze, interpret and disseminate information about health events through public health “surveillance” to track and anticipate possible health problems, such as outbreaks of food-borne illness or disease.

Advisory Council on Hearing Aids
Statutory Authority: ORS 694.015–694.991

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed council consists of four individuals authorized to dispense hearing aids, one licensed physician certified in otolaryngology (ear, nose, throat), one certified audiologist and one public member who is a consumer of hearing aids.

 

With the exception of audiologists and physicians, anyone who sells, leases or rents hearing aids in conjunction with the evaluation or measurement of human hearing must be licensed as a hearing aid specialist. Hearing aid specialists recommend, select or adapt hearing aids and may alter, adjust or reconstruct hearing aids for proper functionality.

 

Board of Direct Entry Midwifery
Statutory Authority: ORS 687.405–687.991

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed, Senate-confirmed board consists of four licensed direct entry midwives, two certified nurse midwives, one licensed physician who is involved at the time of appointment in obstetrical care or education, and one public member.

 

A licensed direct entry midwife (LDM) supervises the conduct and labor of childbirth, advises the parent as to the progress of childbirth, and renders prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care, usually in the home or at birthing centers or clinics. Licensure is voluntary, and unlicensed midwives may practice in Oregon. However, state statute allows for reimbursement under the Oregon Health Plan only if a licensed midwife provides birthing assistance. Only LDMs are legally authorized to administer prescription drugs and devices.

 

Board of Nursing Home Administrators
Statutory Authority: ORS 678.800

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed, Senate-confirmed board consists of three nursing home administrators, one registered nurse, one physician, one pharmacist and two public members. The board develops and enforces standards for nursing home administrators, formulates appropriate examinations, and issues, revokes and suspends licenses. The board investigates complaints, evaluates and approves continuing education courses to meet license renewal requirements, coordinates and monitors a trainee program for prospective nursing home administrators, and maintains a register of all licensed nursing home administrators and trainees.

 

Respiratory Therapy and Polysomnography Board
Statutory Authority: ORS 688.800–688.995

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed, Senate-confirmed board consists of four members who must be Oregon citizens and who have engaged in the practice of respiratory care for a period of five or more years immediately preceding appointment to the board, and one
public member.

 

Respiratory care therapists provide services to patients with abnormalities associated with the cardiopulmonary system. They practice under the direction of a licensed physician and as part of a health care team. Respiratory care therapists administer therapeutic or diagnostic drugs to patients as part of a physician-prescribed treatment plan, implement a physician’s orders for respira­tory treatments, observe and monitor patient symptoms, and assist with administering medical gases.

 

Sex Offender Treatment Board
Statutory Authority: ORS 675.360–675.410

Duties and Responsibilities: This governor-appointed board consists of seven members: two are recommended by the Oregon Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, two are recommended by the Oregon Adolescent Sex Offender Treatment Network, one is recommended by the Oregon Association of Community Corrections Directors, one is recommended by the Oregon Juvenile Department Directors Association, and one is recommended by a victims’ advocacy organization.

 

Clinical sex offender therapists provide services for the treatment and rehabilitation of sex offenders. They must have a minimum of a master’s degree in the behavioral sciences and an active Oregon mental health professional license, or equivalent, to be certified to practice in Oregon. Clinical sex offender therapists may supervise certified associate sex offender therapists, which must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in the behavioral sciences and be under the direct supervision of a clinical sex offender therapist.

 

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