What must the supervising physician actually do in Hawaii?
Oversight · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
Delegate, oversee continuously, and answer for the work — the PA may perform only duties the supervising physician delegates, and that physician must direct and exercise supervision at all times; continuous supervision is not necessarily on-site.
A physician assistant may perform those duties and responsibilities delegated by the physician assistant's supervising physician; the supervising physician accepts responsibility for the supervision of services rendered by physician assistants and shall direct and exercise supervision at all times; and supervision, which means overseeing the activities of and accepting responsibility for the medical services rendered by a physician assistant, is continuous: supervision shall be continuous but shall not be construed as necessarily requiring the physical presence of the supervising physician at the time and place the services are rendered.
Haw. Admin. R. § 16-85-44.5 (Definitions — “Supervising physician”; “Supervision”) · verified Sep 8, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related Hawaii rules
the practice of medicine by a physician or an osteopathic physician includes the use of drugs and medicines; surgery; manual medicine; water; electricity; hypnotism; telehealth; the interpretation of tests, including primary diagnosis of pathology specimens, medical imaging, or any physical; osteopathic medicine; any means, method, or agent, either tangible or intangible, to diagnose, treat, prescribe for, palliate, or correct disease, or prevent any human disease, condition, ailment, pain, injury, deformity, illness, infirmity, defect, physical or mental condition in the human subject.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 453-1 · verified Sep 8, 2026
Except as otherwise provided by law, no person shall practice medicine or surgery in the State, either gratuitously or for pay, or offer to practice medicine or surgery in the State, or advertise or announce one's self, either publicly or privately, as prepared or qualified to practice medicine or surgery in the State, or append the letters "Dr.", "M.D.", or "D.O." to one's name with the intent to imply that the person is a practitioner of medicine or surgery, without having a valid unrevoked license or a limited and temporary license obtained from the Hawaii medical board.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 453-2(a) · verified Sep 8, 2026
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← All Hawaii rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).