The North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry met
at the Board’s office in
The meeting was called to order by the President. Mrs. Mitchell offered an opening prayer.
On a motion by Dr. Banks, seconded by Ms. Richardson and carried unanimously, the Minutes of the July 30 – August 1, 2005 meeting were approved.
Report of the President Dr. Baxter reviewed the Settlement Agreement
between the Boards of Optometry and Medicine signed on
Because of their failure to
convert the Board’s data system(s) from a d-base operating system to a windows
based system with never-ending delays over a period of some three years and
their projected costs to complete the task, the Board after consulting with its
attorney, terminated its relationship with Messers.
Patterson and Considine, dba
CPY Technologies, Inc. In terminating the services of CPY
Technologies, $ 7,500.00 was withheld from the final payment to the company as billed to the Board for services rendered
through the end of fiscal year ending
On a motion by Ms. Mitchell, seconded by Dr. Banks and carried unanimously the report of the President was accepted.
Report of the
Report of the Executive Director The Executive Director presented additional details as to the quandary faced by the Board brought about by the “last minute” announcement that its former data consultants and software vendor could not finish the task of converting the system to windows prior to the time that 2006 license renewals are scheduled for mailing. We were fortunate that with so little time left to fix the problem that a local company was available to come in and help. Mr. John Dixon of I-40 Hosting has spent a significant amount of time looking at our programs and has gained a great deal of insight into the systems’ operations required of the Board’s data base responsibilities and the current status of its operating systems. He has gone through and retrieved data from programs that were put together in a “piecemeal” fashion, has built new firewalls and security systems and is in the process of writing and rewriting programs to retrieve the necessary information to allow us to print and mail the renewals in a timely manner. Many of the fixes he is employing are temporary; however, this approach is necessary because of the short time frame remaining before the 2006 renewals are due to go out. Permanent fixes that require the writing of new software will come later.
A provision in the Settlement Agreement with the Medical Board provides that the Medical Board shall have “the right to provide significant input” through a designee suitable to both parties, prior to the credentialing of any optometrists to perform injection procedures that are the subject of the Agreement. It is recommended that the President appoint a Committee whose responsibilities will be to meet as soon as possible with the Medical Board’s “designee” to consider guidelines for certifying properly trained optometrists to perform injections in the diagnosis, treatment and management of diseases of the eye, and to recommend to the Board as how it should proceed with the credentialing process. Further, it is recommended that the Board formally approve courses they deem appropriate in order to qualify those optometrists currently licensed who wish to become credentialed to perform injections. The Southern College of Optometry has offered these types of courses that included wet labs at State Society Educational Congresses over the course of the past three and a half years. To date some 78 licensees have taken one or more of these courses and have successfully completed the written examinations.
It is recommended that a letter be sent to the Schools and Colleges of Optometry and to the National Board of Examiners in Optometry notifying them that the use of injection procedures in the practice optometry will be included in the examination of applicants who take the North Carolina Boards beginning with the entering class of 2006.
Finally, we learned shortly before
the start of this meeting that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service announced that
the allowable reimbursement rate for travel by private automobile was increased
from $ 0.43 ½ per mile to $ 0.48 ½ per
mile effective
$ 0.48 ½ per mile.
On a motion by Ms. Mitchell, seconded by Ms. Richardson and carried unanimously the Report of the Executive Director was accepted.
Injection Credentialing
Committee The President
appointed Drs. Anderson and Rafferty to serve with the Executive Director as
the Injections Credentialing Committee. Dr. Anderson was asked to serve as Chairman
of the Committee. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement through which the
lawsuit was settled, the Board will receive significant input from a designee
appointed by the Medical Board who will act in an advisory capacity to the
Optometry Board with respect to minimum educational or other requirements for
certification and the development of protocols for the performance of the
procedures. It was the Boards express desire that the input be received
as soon as such designee is identified by the Medical Board, so that the
Committee could develop protocols, criteria, and guidelines, and present them
to the full Board before or at the time of its meeting in
Injection Courses Dr. Anderson moved and Dr. Banks seconded a motion containing the following provisions: (1) that the Committee consider recommending that the eight hour injection courses (which included wet labs) conducted by the Southern College of Optometry at the State Society’s Educational Congresses over the past three and a one-half years be considered as a part of the initial educational credential to be required of currently licensed optometrists who desire to become certified to perform injections; (2) that the Committee consider recommending that those individuals completing both course segments (lecture and wet lab) and who have passed the examinations administered by the College be deemed eligible to become certified to perform injections for chalazia and peri-ocular injections as set forth in the Settlement Agreement; (3) that the Board’s Injection Credentialing Committee work with the Southern College of Optometry to design and conduct a final course of not less than two hours in length which shall have as its overriding concern patient safety, and the subject of which course shall be a review of the diagnosis of conditions of the eye and its adnexa for which treatment is best done by means of medications administered by injection; proof of attendance at such course should be required by the Board prior to its issuing credentials to an optometrist otherwise qualified by education and training to perform injection procedures represented by the CPT Codes as set forth in the Settlement Agreement ; (4) that the foregoing notwithstanding, the Optometry Board will not decide upon or finalize the criteria under which optometrists will be credential to perform any type of injection until such time as the Medical Board Designee has had an opportunity to provide significant input with respect to minimal educational or other requirements for certification and the development of protocols for the performance of the procedures for which a licensee might be credentialed to perform; the Committee has received and considered such input and made its report and recommendations to the Board; the Board has received and considered the recommendations of the Committee; the Board has made known its decision with regards to the criteria under which its licensees will be credentialed to perform injections; and the Board has received the response and comments of the Designee with regards to such credentialing requirements and has considered whether such criteria should be modified in light of the Designee’s response and comments. The motion carried unanimously.
Determination of Examination Results On a motion by Dr. Banks seconded by Ms. Mitchell and carried unanimously the Board went into closed session in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 143-318.11(a)(3).
The results of the scoring of each of the applicant’s performance on the examinations was thoroughly reviewed by the Members of the Board.
On a motion by Dr. Hendrix, seconded by Ms. Richardson and carried unanimously the Board returned to open session.
The review of the scoring of the Summer 2005 Examinations having been completed, Dr. Anderson moved and Ms. Mitchell seconded a motion that carried unanimously that these candidates along with their license number as listed below be notified that they were successful in passing the examination and that they are now licensed to practice optometry in the State of North Carolina with their names having been duly entered into the Board Registry and assigned license numbers as follows:
Scott Blaney, O.D. 1991
Adam Bryan, O.D. 1992
Kristy Bryan, O.D. 1993
Brandi Chavis, O.D. 1994
Elizabeth Cooke, O.D. 1995
Heather Day, O.D. 1996
Sandra Farnham, O.D. 1997
Lisa Fuller, O.D. 1998
Scott Gordon, O.D. 1999
Juawana Hall, O.D. 2000
Amy Harper, O.D. 2001
Jarrett Mazzarella, O.D. 2002
Robert Naylor, O.D. 2003
Kevin Ritter, O.D. 2004
Stacey Singletary, O.D. 2005
Philip Vrkljan, O.D. 2007
On a motion by Ms. Mitchell, seconded by Dr. Anderson and carried unanimously the following candidates were determined to have not passed the examination:
Matthew Bailey, O.D.
Artis Beatty, O.D.
Lisa Bell, O.D.
Amanda Britt, O.D.
David Brown, O.D.
David Cohen, O.D.
Teresa Hsu, O.D.
Punam Saini, O.D.
Kristina Swartz, O.D.
Aaron Westerlund, O.D.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board will be at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC beginning on Thursday, November 10, 2005 and ending no later than noon on Sunday, November 13, 2005. Dr. Baxter determined that the Board Members use Wednesday, November 9, 2005 as a travel day and that reimbursement for the meeting be for 5 days per diem, travel, 5 days subsistence and 4 hotel nights.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 A.M. Sunday, September 11, 2005.
Approved 11/10/05
Asheville, NC