Public health internships.
Houston Code of Ordinances § 21-16
in effectSec. 21-16. - Public health internships.
(a) A health education institution wishing to sponsor a public health internship program for its nursing or other health curricula shall make written application to the director on a form promulgated by him and approved by the legal department. No other form shall be used to establish terms and conditions for public health internship programs. The director shall review each application for compliance with the terms of this section. If the application is on compliance, the director may approve it, subject to the resource and budgetary constraints of the Houston Health Department. The director may reject an application if the proposed program would interfere with the city's program for delivery of public health care services. If there are more complying applications than can be approved due to budgetary or resource constraints, the director shall rank and approve applications in order of their benefits to the city's program for delivery of public health care services. The director may require, as a condition of approving an application, that the sponsoring institution provide a faculty member to accompany the intern or interns during clinical experience.
(b) All health education institutions wishing to sponsor interns in a public health internship program with the department must furnish to the department's office of quality assurance and continuing education a copy of a professional liability insurance policy in the amount of $300,000.00 per occurrence covering each intern and supervising faculty member provided by the sponsoring institution during his or her internship or during supervision or instruction given during the internship. The director may waive this insurance requirement for any intern if he determines that the intern will have no patient contact. The director may condition approval of an application upon the sponsoring institution's furnishing such policy 14 days prior to the start of the internship program. Unless waived by the director pursuant to this subsection, no intern shall be allowed to commence his or her internship without a copy of an insurance policy with coverage in compliance with this subsection on file with the office of quality assurance and continuing education.
(c) All books, manuals, and other educational materials and faculty required by the internship program shall be provided by the intern or the sponsoring institution at no cost to the city.
(d) The director shall establish general administrative procedures for public health internship programs including procedures for attendance verification, absences of interns because of illness, and unsatisfactory or unprofessional conduct of interns. The director may terminate an individual internship or an internship program for failure to comply with the administrative procedures established under this subsection. The director shall furnish the city secretary with a current copy of the procedures and shall maintain a copy in his offices at the Houston Health Department for public inspection.
(Ord. No. 85-943, § 1, 6-25-85; Ord. No. 86-640, § 1, 5-13-86; Ord. No. 2015-820, § 34, 8-26-2015)
Source: City of Houston, Code of Ordinances and City Charter (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/tx/houston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH21HE_ARTIINGE_S21-16PUHEINFetched: 10/26/2026