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528 OF 1999
(September 14)
Official Journal No. 43,711 of 20 September 1999
Public Power-Legislative Branch
By which the exercise of the profession of physical therapy is regulated, rules on professional ethics and other provisions are dictated.
COLOMBIA CONGRESS
DECRETA:
GENERAL PROVISIONS
ARTICLE 1o. physical therapy is a liberal profession, the area of health, with university education, whose subjects of attention are the individual, the family and the community, in the environment where they are developed.
Their goal is to study, understand and manage human body movement, as an essential element of human health and well-being. Guides its actions to the maintenance, optimization or potentialization of the movement as well as to the prevention and recovery of its alterations and to the integral empowerment and rehabilitation of the people, in order to optimize their quality of life and contribute to social development. It bases its professional exercise on the knowledge of the biological, social and humanistic sciences, as well as its own theories and technologies.
ARTICLE 2o. FROM THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES. The principles of a universal nature that inform the development, scope and interpretation of the regulatory norms of the exercise of the profession of physical therapy in Colombia and serve as a basis for Provisions on ethics in this field are as follows:
(a) The activities inherent in the exercise of physical therapy impose a profound respect for the dignity of the human person and for their individual rights and rights, without distinction of age, sex or nationality or racial, cultural, economic, political or religious;
(b) The forms of intervention used in the development of the professional exercise must be based on the scientific principles that guide the processes related to human body movement which, therefore, constitute the essence of the academic training of the physiotherapist;
c) The study of the users of physical therapy services, as individuals considered, should be done in a comprehensive field. It therefore constitutes a duty prior to any type of professional action, an assessment involving the historical, family, social, economic and cultural aspects of the activities;
d) The participation of the physiotherapist in any type of scientific research involving human beings, must conform to the methodological and ethical principles that allow the advancement of science, without sacrificing the rights of the person;
e) The duty to pay attention and contribute to the recovery and well-being of people, does not imply the commitment to guarantee the successful results of a professional intervention; to do so, constitutes a lack of ethics that must be sanctioned by the provisions of this law;
f) The relationship between the physiotherapist and the users of his services is inspired by a commitment of mutual loyalty, authenticity and responsibility that must be guaranteed by adequate information, privacy, confidentiality and consent. prior to the professional action by those. Personalized and humanized care is a permanent ethical duty;
g) The pedagogical activity of the physiotherapist is a noble practice that must be developed by passing on knowledge and experiences to the profession, or according to the chair in university institutions or others whose operation is legally authorised. In one and the other case, it is his duty to observe the pedagogical foundations and a teaching method that conforms to professional ethics;
h) The function that a physiotherapist is required to perform, in the title of auxiliary of justice when required for such purposes in accordance with the law, must be performed with strict independence of criteria, valuing the case submitted to your expert and oriented solely by the search for the truth;
i) Remuneration that the physiotherapist receives as a product of his or her work, forms part of the rights that derive from his professional practice as such and, therefore, in no case should be shared with other professionals or other persons reasons beyond the very essence of this right;
j) The training and permanent updating of physiotherapists identify individually or as a whole the advancement of professional development. Therefore, the update constitutes a duty and an ethical responsibility;
k) The autonomy and independence of the physiotherapist, in accordance with the provisions of this law, are the foundations of the responsible and ethical exercise of his profession;
(l) The exercise of physical therapy imposes responsibilities on social and community development. The actions of the physiotherapist are oriented not only in the individual field of their professional exercise, but also in the analysis of the impact of this in the social order;
(m) It is the duty of the physiotherapist to provide professional services of the highest possible quality, taking into account the available resources at their disposal and the conditions of different order in the environment within which they develop their activity.
EXERCISING THE PROFESSION OF PHYSICAL THERAPY
ARTICLE 3o. For the purposes of this law, the exercise of the profession of physiotherapy is understood to be the activity developed by physiotherapists in the field of:
a) Design, execution and direction of scientific, disciplinary or interdisciplinary research, aimed at the renovation or construction of knowledge that contributes to the understanding of its object of study and the development of its professional work, from the perspective of natural and social sciences;
b) Design, execution, direction and control of physiotherapy intervention programs for: the promotion of health and kinetic well-being, prevention of deficiencies, functional limitations, disabilities and changes in the condition physical in individuals and communities at risk, the recovery of systems essential for human movement and participation in interdisciplinary processes of comprehensive empowerment and rehabilitation;
c) Management of physiotherapy services in the sectors of social security, health, labour, education and other sectors of national development;
d) Management and management of academic programs for the training of physiotherapists and other related professionals;
e) Teaching in physiotherapy and related programs and programs;
f) Advice and participation in the design and formulation of policies in health and in physiotherapy and the projection of professional practice;
g) Advice and participation for the establishment of quality standards in education and care in physiotherapy and provisions and mechanisms to ensure their compliance;
h) Advisory and consulting for the design, execution and direction of programs, in the fields and areas where knowledge and the disciplinary and professional contribution of physical therapy is required and/or suitable for social benefit;
i) Design, execution and direction of training and non-formal education programs in the area;
(j) All professional activities that are derived from the previous ones and which are related to the field of competence of physiotherapist.
ARTICLE 4. REQUIREMENT FOR THE EXERCISE OF THE PHYSICAL THERAPY PROFESSION. To exercise the profession of physical therapy in Colombia, it is necessary to accredit the academic formulation and professional suitability, through the presentation of the respective title, according to the law and obtain the Professional Card issued by the National Professional Council of Physical Therapy, which is created with this law.
PARAGRAFO 1o. The Professional Cards issued to the Physiotherapists by rules prior to the validity of this law, retain their validity.
PARAGRAFO 2o. While the National Professional Board of Physiotherapy initiates its operation, Professional Cards of the Physiotherapists will continue to be issued by the departmental and district secretaries. Health.
FROM THE REGISTRATION OF PROFESSIONALS IN PHYSICAL THERAPY
ARTICLE 5o. REGISTRATION AND PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATION OF PHYSICAL THERAPY. The National Professional Council of Physiotherapy, is the body authorized to carry out the registration and the national registration of the one who exercises the profession of physical therapy in Colombia.
ARTICLE 6o. OF THE REQUIREMENTS. You will only be able to obtain a Professional Fiotherapist Card, exercise the profession and use the respective title within the national territory who:
a) Hayan acquired or acquired the title of physical therapist, awarded by officially recognized higher education institutions;
(b) Hayan acquired or acquired the title of physical therapist in higher education institutions operating in countries with which Colombia has concluded treaties or conventions on the reciprocity of diplomas;
(c) Hayan acquired or acquired the title of physiotherapist in higher education institutions operating in countries with which Colombia has not concluded treaties or conventions on the equivalence of diplomas, provided that it is requested and obtained validation of the title to the competent authorities in accordance with the rules in force.
FROM THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL THERAPY COUNCIL
ARTICLE 7o. Create the National Professional Council of Physiotherapy, as an organ responsible for the promotion, promotion, control and surveillance of the exercise of the physical therapy profession in Colombia, which will be integrated by the following members:
a) Minister of Health or his delegate, who presides over it;
b) Minister of Education or his delegate;
c) Three (3) representatives of the National Physical Therapy Associations;
d) Two (2) representatives of the National Associations of Physical Therapy Faculties.
PARAGRAFO 1o. With respect to numbers c) and d) in the case of only one National Association of Physical Therapy or Physical Therapy Faculties, the National Association of Physiotherapy shall appoint the total number of representatives. If two or more associations coexist, the representatives shall be appointed in accordance with the membership number and seniority of the associations. This aspect should be regulated by the National Professional Council of Physiotherapy.
PARAGRAFO 2o. The representatives of the associations must be of recognized professional suitability and ethical and moral solvency, with not less than ten years in the professional or teaching exercise.
ARTICLE 8o. DUTIES OF THE NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL PHYSIOTHERAPY COUNCIL. The National Professional Council of Physiotherapy will be based in the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C. and its functions are:
a) Analyzing the needs of physical therapy of the Colombian population, as a basis for the planning and projection of the profession, in the aspects related to professional practice, training and research;
b) Analyze strategies for the professional exercise of physical therapy in light of the requirements and permanent changes of the external environment;
c) Propose policies and provisions regarding the training, updating and placement of physiotherapy professionals;
d) Define the essential requirements for the provision of physical therapy services, at all levels of care;
e) Give guidelines for the definition of quality standards and criteria in the academic and service delivery of the professional in physical therapy;
f) Establishing criteria to ensure adequate working conditions of well-being and safety in the professional exercise;
g) Exorder professional physical therapy cards;
h) Vellar for the ethical exercise of the physiotherapy profession;
i) Know, determine and coordinate actions, in disciplinary processes of an ethical nature in the exercise of the profession;
j) Solve on the cancellation and suspension of the professional card for physical therapy for faults in the Code of Ethics and the correct professional exercise;
k) Reporting to the competent authorities the competent violations of the legal provisions governing the professional exercise of physical therapy;
l) Define requirements to be met by professional associations in physical therapy;
m) Create the professional physical therapy tips, if you consider it necessary;
n) Address professional dissent among physical therapists;
O) Monitor and control the ads that professionals in physical therapy offer their services;
p) Dictate your own rules and organization;
q) All others that point to the law.
ILLEGAL EXERCISE OF THE PROFESSION OF PHYSICAL THERAPY
ARTICLE 9o. Understand the illegal exercise of the physical therapy profession, any activity performed within the field of competence indicated in this law by those who do not have the quality of physical therapists. and are not duly authorised to perform as such.
The profession of physiotherapy is also illegally exercised by those who advertise by means of notices, propagandas, plates, murals or other means of advertising without meeting the requirements of this law.
ARTICLE 10. PENALTIES FOR THE UNLAWFUL EXERCISE OF PHYSICAL THERAPY. Whoever unlawfully exercises the profession of physical therapy violates any of the provisions of this law or authorizes, facilitates, sponsors or covers the illegal exercise of the physical therapy. physiotherapy, it will incur the penalties provided by the law for cases of illegal exercise, without prejudice to disciplinary, civil, criminal and administrative sanctions to be imposed.
OF THE ETHICS CODE FOR THE EXERCISE OF THE PHYSICAL THERAPY PROFESSION
ARTICLE 11. The exercise of the physical therapy profession should be guided by concepts, criteria and high ends that are intended to encourage this profession, therefore professionals in physical therapy, are required to adjust their professional actions to the provisions of this standard which constitute their Code of Professional Ethics.
PARAGRAFO. The ethics rules mentioned in this code do not imply the negation of other universal norms.
Of the physical therapist's relationships with users of their services
ARTICLE 12. Physical therapists must ensure that users of their services have the highest possible quality of care, in accordance with the provisions of Law 100 of 1993 and other rules that add to it or modify; without such a guarantee can be understood in relation to the results of the professional interventions, since the exercise of the physiotherapy involves obligations of medium but not of result.
ARTICLE 13. Whenever the physical therapist develops his or her professional work, with individuals or groups, it is his obligation to make a comprehensive assessment, aimed at establishing a physical therapeutic diagnosis, such as the basis for their professional involvement.
PARAGRAFO. Physical-therapeutic diagnosis refers to the determination of capabilities/disabilities, deficiencies and/or functional limitations resulting from disease, injury, surgical or other intervention. health conditions, directly related to your specific field of knowledge. The determination of the active pathology of these manifestations corresponds to the medical diagnosis.
ARTICLE 14. For the provision of physical therapy services, users of physical therapy may freely choose the professional of their trust.
PARAGRAFO. In the institutional work, the right of free choice of physical therapist enshrined in this article, will be subject to the possibilities that each entity can offer.
ARTICLE 15. The user of the services of a physical therapist may be free and for any reason to dispense with them.
ARTICLE 16. In cases where the services of a physical therapist are dispensed with, in accordance with the previous article, or when the user of the services so requests, the professional is obliged to deliver to this medical history or the corresponding record. In the institutional order such delivery will be subject to the regulations of the respective entity.
ARTICLE 17. The physical therapist may be excused from attending a user of his or her services or interrupting the provision of the services, whenever the following circumstances arise:
a) When the user receives the attention of another professional or person who, in the case of the physiotherapist, interferes with his;
b) That service users delay or omit compliance with the instructions or instructions given by the physical therapist;
c) That for any cause, there is a deterioration in the relationships between the physiotherapist and the user of his/her services, which can negatively influence the quality of care;
d) Where the autonomy of the physiotherapist is intended to be limited or conditioned in his or her professional practice.
PARAGRAFO. For the reasons justifying the excuse referred to in this article, the physiotherapist must be on record in the medical history or in the respective register.
ARTICLE 18. When the primary or direct consultant of a physical therapist is an individual or a healthy group of physical therapy services, his or her professional intervention will be directed to create or strengthen healthy behaviors and lifestyles, and to modify those that are not, to inform and control risk factors and to promote and encourage individual and social participation in the management and solution of their problems.
ARTICLE 19. In the case of primary or direct consultants requiring treatment of physical therapy, the professional will evaluate and diagnose a corresponding physical therapy to start the treatment. If other diagnostic or therapeutic needs are warned, the physiotherapist must refer the user to a doctor or other competent professional.
PARAGRAFO. In the user reference note to the competent professional, the physical therapeutic diagnosis and the prescribed treatment must be indicated.
ARTICLE 20. When the purposes of the professional intervention have been reached or when the physical therapist does not warn or provide any benefit to the user, this will be done to the person who receives the services, and must refrain from continuing to provide them. With regard to this decision and its justification, it should be made clear in the clinical history or in the corresponding register.
ARTICLE 21. When the physical therapy actions are simply palliative, the physical therapist will be known to the user or to those responsible for it.
ARTICLE 22. The physical therapist must request the support tests that you consider necessary or convenient to ensure the quality of your professional practice.
ARTICLE 23. The records corresponding to the evolution of the professional interventions performed by the physiotherapists, must be incorporated into the clinical history or the institutional general register corresponding.
ARTICLE 24. The physiotherapists, in the exercise of their profession, may use the topical and inhaled medications adjuvants in the treatment of physical therapy, in accordance with the legal provisions of the health nature of the subject and the previous curricular training.
ARTICLE 25. It is the duty of the physiotherapist to warn the users of their services the foreseeable risks as a result of the intervention to be developed, as the case may be.
ARTICLE 26. The physical therapist will not be responsible for adverse reactions, immediate or late, impossible or difficult to predict, produced by their professional interventions. Nor shall it be responsible for the adverse effects not attributable to its fault, originating in a foreseen risk whose contingency the user accepts, since it is possible to develop the intervention that is required.
ARTICLE 27. In any case, before starting a professional intervention, the physical therapist must ask the users of their services, the consent to perform it.
ARTICLE 28. The physical therapist must be committed, as an integral part of his professional practice, with the permanent actions of health promotion and primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of the alterations and complications of human movement.
From the relationship of the Physiotherapist to colleagues and other professionals
ARTICLE 29. The loyalty and respect between the Physiotherapist and other professionals with whom it interrelates for the purposes of their exercise as such are fundamental elements of their practice. professional.
ARTICLE 30. The Physiotherapist, in its relations with other professionals, will proceed with the autonomy and independence conferred on it by its academic preparation at the university level.
ARTICLE 31. When a user referred by another professional, in the judgment of the Physiotherapist does not require the attention requested, it is the duty of the latter to inform the referring professional.
ARTICLE 32. The diagnostic differences between Fiotherapists may not be transmitted to users or any other person, such as disapproval or disauthorization with respect to their colleagues. Its effects only merit the convenience of a review of the initially suggested diagnosis. In any event, the differences in the criterion or the professional opinion shall be expressed in a prudent and duly substantiated manner.
ARTICLE 33. Professional Disentiments between Fiosiotherapists will be settled by the National Professional Council of Physical Therapy.
ARTICLE 34. In no case should the Physiotherapist grant economic or other participation to the referral to its office of persons who require its services. You will also not be able to apply when acting as a sender.
ARTICLE 35. The Physiotherapist may not delegate to other professionals or professionals from other levels of training such as technicians or technologists, or any other person, the assessment and diagnosis of who require their services, or the adoption of the professional intervention plan to take place. The application of specific activities and procedures which each case requires may be delegated only in cases where the direct activity of the physiotherapist is not indispensable and its execution is directly supervised, supervised and responsibility on the part of the latter.
ARTICLE 36. The scientific-technical criteria expressed by a physiotherapist to attend to the interconsultation formulated by another professional, do not compromise their responsibility with respect to the intervention, when it has not been entrusted to it.
From the relationship of the Physiotherapist to institutions, society and the
Status
ARTICLE 37. The Physiotherapist shall perform its professional duties on the right to be obliged to the institutions in which it provides its services, except in cases where it carries out the violation of the any of the provisions of this law and other applicable laws. In this last eventuality, you will let him know to his superior hierarchical.
ARTICLE 38. The Physiotherapist who provides his services as a dependent of a public or private entity, may not receive for his professional activity, remuneration other than that which constitutes his own salary or fees. It will therefore not be able to provide any additional remuneration for the same user.
ARTICLE 39. The Physiotherapist will not take advantage of its linkage with an institution to induce the users of the services that they receive, to use them in the private field of their exercise professional.
ARTICLE 40. The management and coordination of Physical Therapy services in health facilities and other institutions should be performed by Fiosiotherapists with academic training. University level.
ARTICLE 41. The Dean of Physical Therapy Faculties and the Directors of Academic Programs, at the different levels of training, should be Fiotherapists with academic level training. university.
