---
title: HB 692. Nurses; notify supervising or delegating physician when subject to a complaint or report in outpatient settings; provisions
collection: bills
id: 2025-2026/hb692
cite_as: HB 692, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb692
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb692.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb692/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/71032
date: 2025-03-04
status: introduced
corpus_version: bills-2026-09-12
license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb691.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb693.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md
omitted: votes and history
omitted_chars: 129
omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb692.md?full=1
bill_number: HB 692
session: 2025-2026 Regular Session
session_slug: 2025-2026
chamber: House
bill_type: bill
status_date: 2025-02-28
last_action: House Second Readers
sponsors:
- Mark Newton
- Lee Hawkins
text_version: Introduced
has_text: true
legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB692/2025
upstream_id: 1989299
summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5
topic_tags:
- nursing regulation
- medical licensing
- physician oversight
- prescription drugs
- healthcare complaints
---
# HB 692. Nurses; notify supervising or delegating physician when subject to a complaint or report in outpatient settings; provisions
## Text
House Bill 692
By: Representatives Newton of the 127th and Hawkins of the 27th
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Article 3 of Chapter 26 of Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated,
relating to mandatory reporting requirements for nurses, so as to require registered
professional nurses and advanced practice registered nurses in outpatient settings to
immediately notify his or her supervising or delegating physician when he or she is subject
to a complaint or report made to the Georgia Board of Nursing; to require the Georgia Board
of Nursing to transmit to the Georgia Composite Medical Board copies of certain complaints
and reports received relating to care rendered in certain settings which requires physician
involvement; to provide for definitions; to provide for confidentiality and privileges relating
to communications between the boards; to provide for an exception; to provide for related
matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Article 3 of Chapter 26 of Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
mandatory reporting requirements for nurses, is amended by adding a new Code section to
read as follows:
"43-26-56.
(a) As used in this Code section, the term:
(1) 'Biological product' means a product derived from living material, including human,
animal, or microorganism regulated by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the
federal Public Health Service Act, or both, used for the treatment, prevention, or cure of
disease in humans.
(2) 'Compounded drug' means the preparation, mixing, assembling, altering, packaging,
and labeling of a drug, drug-delivery device, or device in accordance with a licensed
practitioner's prescription, medication order, or initiative based on the relationship
between the practitioner, patient, pharmacist, and compounding pharmacist or pharmacy
in the course of professional practice.
(3) 'Medical device' means any instrument, machine, contrivance, implant, or in vitro
reagent regulated by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act intended to treat, cure,
prevent, mitigate, or diagnose disease in humans.
(4) 'Prescription drug' means any human drug required by federal law or regulation to be
dispensed only by a prescription, including finished dosage forms and active ingredients
subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
(5) 'Prescription product' means a:
(A) Prescription drug;
(B) Biological product;
(C) Medical device; or
(D) Compounded drug.
(b) On and after July 1, 2025, when a registered professional nurse or advanced practice
registered nurse working in an outpatient setting becomes aware of a complaint or report
made to the board regarding care rendered by such nurse that requires physician
involvement, including, but not limited to, ordering or procuring prescription products, the
administration of prescription products, or the ordering or prescribing of prescription
products pursuant to a nurse protocol agreement, the registered professional nurse or
advanced practice registered nurse shall immediately notify his or her supervising or
delegating physician of such complaint.
(c) On and after July 1, 2025, notwithstanding Code Section 43-1-21, when the board
receives a complaint or report regarding care rendered by a registered professional nurse
or advanced practice registered nurse in an outpatient setting that requires physician
involvement, including, but not limited to, ordering or procuring prescription products, the
administration of prescription products, or the ordering or prescribing of prescription
products pursuant to a nurse protocol agreement, the board shall immediately transmit a
copy of such complaint or report to the Georgia Composite Medical Board, including any
investigative materials related to such complaint or report.
(d) No later than December 31, 2025, notwithstanding Code Section 43-1-21, the board
shall transmit to the Georgia Composite Medical Board a copy of all complaints and
reports received by the board between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2025, regarding care
rendered by a registered professional nurse or advanced practice registered nurse in an
outpatient setting that requires physician involvement, including, but not limited to,
ordering or procuring prescription products, the administration of prescription products, or
the ordering or prescribing of prescription products pursuant to a nurse protocol agreement,
including any investigative materials received by the board prior to or after June 30, 2025,
related to such complaints and reports.
(e) Any communications between the board and the Georgia Composite Medical Board,
including communications with investigators and other staff of each of the respective
boards pursuant to this Code section, shall not be construed to waive, abrogate,
compromise, or otherwise affect the confidentiality of any such communications or the
privileges of each board provided pursuant to the provisions of Article 6 of Chapter 7 of
Title 31, relating to medical peer review groups.
(f) The provisions of this Code section shall not apply to complaints or reports received
by the board relating to prescription products provided or administered by a registered
professional nurse or advanced practice registered nurse through a home health agency as
defined in Code Section 31-7-150."
SECTION 2.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.
## Summaries written by Georgia Commons
The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary.
A Georgia House bill would require registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in outpatient settings to notify their supervising physician when they face a complaint tied to prescribing or administering drugs, and would require the Georgia Board of Nursing to share such complaints with the Georgia Composite Medical Board.
### Plain-language summary
Under current Georgia law, complaints against nurses go to the Georgia Board of Nursing, and physicians who supervise or delegate authority to those nurses are not automatically told about complaints tied to prescribing or medication tasks. This bill adds a new section to Georgia's nurse reporting law (O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 26) to change that.
Starting July 1, 2025, a registered professional nurse or advanced practice registered nurse working outside a hospital setting who learns of a complaint involving physician-related duties, such as ordering, administering, or prescribing drugs and other prescription products, must immediately tell their supervising or delegating physician. The Georgia Board of Nursing must also immediately forward copies of such complaints, along with investigative materials, to the Georgia Composite Medical Board. By December 31, 2025, the nursing board must also send the medical board copies of similar complaints going back to January 1, 2021. Communications between the two boards stay confidential under Georgia's medical peer review law, and the requirements do not apply to nurses working through home health agencies.
### What it does
- Requires outpatient registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses to immediately tell their supervising or delegating physician if they learn of a complaint involving physician-related duties like prescribing.
- Requires the Georgia Board of Nursing to immediately send the Georgia Composite Medical Board copies of qualifying complaints and any investigative materials, starting July 1, 2025.
- Requires the nursing board to send the medical board a batch of similar complaints and reports going back to January 1, 2021, by December 31, 2025.
- Protects communications between the two boards under the confidentiality rules for medical peer review groups (O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 7).
- Exempts complaints about prescription products handled through home health agencies from all these requirements.
### Who it affects
Registered professional nurses and advanced practice registered nurses working in outpatient settings, the physicians who supervise or delegate authority to them, the Georgia Board of Nursing, and the Georgia Composite Medical Board, which would receive shared complaint records under the bill.
### Why it matters
Physicians who oversee outpatient nurses would learn sooner about complaints tied to prescribing or medication duties, potentially affecting their own liability or oversight decisions. Nurses would face a new immediate reporting duty, and two years of past complaint records would be shared between the state's nursing and medical boards.
### Key provisions
- New Code Section 43-26-56(a) defines terms like 'prescription product,' 'biological product,' 'compounded drug,' and 'medical device' used throughout the section.
- Subsection (b) requires outpatient nurses to immediately notify their supervising or delegating physician upon learning of a complaint involving physician-related care, effective July 1, 2025.
- Subsection (c) requires the Georgia Board of Nursing to immediately transmit qualifying complaints and investigative materials to the Georgia Composite Medical Board, overriding normal confidentiality under O.C.G.A. § 43-1-21.
- Subsection (d) requires a one-time transmission by December 31, 2025 of qualifying complaints and reports received between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2025.
- Subsection (e) preserves confidentiality and peer review privileges for communications between the two boards under O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 7.
- Subsection (f) exempts complaints about prescription products provided through home health agencies, as defined in O.C.G.A. § 31-7-150.
## Status
- Status: Introduced (2025-02-28)
- Last action: House Second Readers (2025-03-04)
- Sponsors: Mark Newton, Lee Hawkins
- Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/71032
> The history, votes, and amendments (129 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb692.md?full=1