The Director of the Department shall have the following powers and duties:
1. To supervise and manage the Department;
2. To perform or consolidate such administrative services or functions as may assist the operation of the boards;
3. To prepare, approve, and submit to the Governor, after consultation with the boards, all requests for appropriations and be responsible for all expenditures pursuant to appropriations;
4. To provide such office facilities as will allow the boards to carry out their duties;
5. To employ personnel as required for the proper performance of the responsibilities of the Department subject to the Virginia Personnel Act (§ 2.2-2900 et seq.) within the limits of appropriations made by law;
6. To receive all complaints made against regulated health care professionals;
7. To develop administrative policies and procedures governing the receipt and recording of complaints;
8. To monitor the status of actions taken under the auspices of the boards regarding complaints until the closure of each case;
9. To provide investigative and such other services as needed by the boards to enforce their respective statutes and regulations;
10. To collect and account for all fees to be paid into each board and account for and deposit the moneys so collected into a special fund from which the expenses of the health regulatory boards, the Health Practitioners' Monitoring Program, and the Department shall be paid. Such fees shall be held exclusively to cover the expenses of the health regulatory boards, the Health Practitioners' Monitoring Program, and the Department and shall not be transferred to any agency other than the Department, except as provided in §§ 54.1-3011.1 and 54.1-3011.2 ;
11. To make and enter into all contracts and agreements necessary or incidental to the performance of his duties and the execution of his powers, including, but not limited to, contracts with the United States, other states, and agencies and governmental subdivisions of the Commonwealth;
12. To accept grants from the United States government, its agencies and instrumentalities, and any other source. The Director shall have the power to comply with conditions and execute agreements as may be necessary, convenient, or desirable;
13. To promulgate and revise regulations necessary for the administration of the Department and such regulations as are necessary for the implementation of the Health Practitioners' Monitoring Program pursuant to Chapter 25.1 (§ 54.1-2515 et seq.) and subdivision 18;
14. To report promptly, after consultation with the presiding officer of the appropriate health regulatory board or his designee, to the Attorney General or the appropriate attorney for the Commonwealth any information the Department obtains which, upon appropriate investigation, indicates, in the judgment of the Director, that a person licensed by any of the health regulatory boards has violated any provision of criminal law, including the laws relating to manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, prescribing, or administering drugs other than drugs classified as Schedule VI drugs. When necessary, the Attorney General or the attorney for the Commonwealth shall request that the Department of Health Professions or the Department of State Police conduct any subsequent investigation of such report. Upon request and affidavit from an attorney for the Commonwealth, the Director shall provide documents material to a criminal investigation of a person licensed by a health regulatory board; however, peer review documents shall not be released and shall remain privileged pursuant to § 8.01-581.17 . For the purpose of this section, the terms manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, prescribing, or administering drugs shall not include minor administrative or clerical errors that do not affect the inventory of drugs required by the Drug Control Act (§ 54.1-3400 et seq.) and do not indicate a pattern of criminal behavior;
15. To keep records of the names and qualifications of registered, certified, or licensed persons;
16. To exercise other powers and perform other duties required of the Director by the Governor;
17. To issue subpoenas in accordance with the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.) for any informal fact finding or formal proceeding within the jurisdiction of the Department or any regulatory board;
18. To establish, and revise as necessary, a health practitioners' monitoring program pursuant to Chapter 25.1 (§ 54.1-2515 et seq.);
19. To establish, and revise as necessary, with such federal funds, grants, or general funds as may be appropriated or made available for this program, the Prescription Monitoring Program pursuant to Chapter 25.2 (§ 54.1-2519 et seq.);
20. To assess a civil penalty against any person who is not licensed by a health regulatory board for failing to report a violation pursuant to § 54.1-2400.6 or 54.1-2909 ;
21. To evaluate, at the request of the General Assembly, health care professions and occupations in the Commonwealth and to consider whether each such profession or occupation should be regulated and the degree of regulation to be imposed;
22. To receive, review, and forward to the appropriate health regulatory board any departmental investigative reports relating to complaints of violations by practitioners of the Practitioner Self-Referral Act (§ 54.1-2410 et seq.);
23. To determine compliance with, violations of, and grant exceptions to the prohibitions set forth in the Practitioner Self-Referral Act (§ 54.1-2410 et seq.); and
24. To take appropriate actions against entities, other than practitioners, for violations of the Practitioner Self-Referral Act (§ 54.1-2410 et seq.).
1977, c. 579, § 54-955; 1980, c. 678; 1983, c. 528; 1986, c. 564; 1988, cc. 266, 765; 1997, c. 439 ; 2002, c. 481 ; 2003, cc. 753 , 762 ; 2004, c. 64 ; 2006, c. 631 ; 2009, c. 472 ; 2025, c. 341 .
