Scope of Practice, Definitions, and Statutory Authority
Scope of Practice, Definitions, and Statutory Authority
Chiropractic in Louisiana is created by statute, not by custom: the Louisiana Chiropractic Practice Act, La. R.S. 37:2801 et seq., defines who may practice and what practice includes. The exam tests whether you can read a fact pattern and place each act inside or outside that statutory boundary.
What the Act grants
- Diagnosis and treatment of human illness and injury through adjustment and manipulation of the spine and other articulations.
- Adjunctive physical measures used in chiropractic care, plus the diagnostic aids the Act authorizes, including diagnostic X-ray and its interpretation.
- Licensure as the gate: only a person licensed by the Board may practice or hold out as a chiropractor. Unlicensed practice is a separate violation enforced by the Board and, on referral, by prosecutors.
What the Act withholds
The Act does not confer a medical license. Surgery, prescribing or dispensing legend drugs, and administering anesthesia fall outside chiropractic scope, and no Board rule can enlarge the statute; rules implement the Act, they do not amend it. Title usage is restricted too - a licensee may not advertise or imply licensure the licensee does not hold.
Worked example
A patient reports headaches and a blood pressure of 178/104. The chiropractor takes a history, examines, adjusts the cervical spine, counsels on follow-up - and starts the patient on a beta-blocker sample borrowed from a colleague.
Reasoning: the exam, adjustment, and counseling are within scope; the drug sample is not. Recognizing hypertension is legitimate chiropractic diagnosis, but treating it with prescription medication is outside the Act regardless of clinical judgment or the prescriber's permission. The correct step is prompt referral with documentation of the finding.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading the scope as "manipulation only" and missing authorized adjunctive measures and X-ray rights.
- Assuming a D.C. credential carries authority to prescribe or to hold out as a medical physician.
- Confusing Board rulemaking with legislative authority - a rule cannot expand the statutory scope.