Board Rules and Regulations: Practice Standards, Recordkeeping, and Office Requirements
What this domain tests
This domain tests the day-to-day compliance rules that turn the statute into office practice: charting, informed consent, infection control, equipment, advertising, and physical office standards. The Board’s rules are found in the Georgia Compilation of Rules and Regulations, Chapter 100.
Practice standards
- Maintain a clean, safe office with functioning equipment, hand hygiene, and infection-control practices appropriate to the procedures performed.
- Use diagnostic x-ray equipment only as permitted, with proper shielding, technique, and operator qualification. Do not use x-ray therapy; therapeutic radiation is outside scope.
- Obtain and document informed consent before care. A signed form alone is not enough if the patient did not understand the material risks, alternatives, and right to refuse.
- Advertising must be truthful and not misleading. Avoid guarantees of cure, inflated claims of superiority, or unverifiable board certification claims.
Recordkeeping
- Each patient record should identify the patient, date, history, examination findings, diagnosis, treatment plan, informed consent, treatment rendered, progress, referrals, and discharge instructions.
- Records must be accurate, legible, timely, and secure. Do not chart only “adjusted C2”; document the clinical basis for the adjustment and the patient’s response.
- Retain records for the period required by Board rule and keep them available for Board inspection or complaint investigation. Do not destroy records after a complaint or while litigation is pending.
- Patients have rights of access to their records under Georgia law and federal privacy rules, subject to exceptions.
Office requirements
- Display the license as required, keep registration and equipment records current, and ensure staff work within their permitted roles.
- Maintain emergency procedures and make appropriate referrals when the office cannot meet a patient’s needs.
Worked example
A chart contains a signed consent form, three progress notes saying “felt better,” and no diagnosis or treatment plan. A complaint is filed after an adverse event. The Board may discipline the chiropractor for recordkeeping failures even if the adjustment was technically correct, because the record does not show evaluation, consent, or clinical reasoning. The signed form does not cure the missing documentation.
Traps that cost marks
Records are clinical and legal documents, not billing notes. Informed consent is a process, not merely a signature. “Defensive charting” that is false or exaggerated is itself a violation. Office inspection authority does not require patient consent to review required records.