Friday, Sept. 5, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.
RENO -- After being prodded by some state lawmakers to open a branch office in Las Vegas, the state Board of Medical Examiners on Thursday was told by Southern Nevada doctors that a Clark County office is unnecessary, especially if it means doctors would have to pay higher fees.
The board was considering opening a three-person office in Las Vegas that would cost an estimated $300,000 a year.
Board member Donald Baepler said it was "politically expedient" to open the Las Vegas office because of the push of some lawmakers. But it would mean a "very significant increase in licensing fees to accommodate $600,000 over the biennium," he said.
Dr. Donald Havins, executive director of the Clark County Medical Association, told the board in the video-conferenced meeting that physicians in Las Vegas think that opening an office in Southern Nevada is unnecessary.
He said video-conferencing of the board meetings to Las Vegas would be adequate. That would give the physicians access to the board, he said. He said he did not know whether doctors would support an increase in their biennial fees to pay for a Las Vegas office.
The board delayed discussion of the possibility of opening a Las Vegas office until December. It directed Deputy Executive Secretary Tony Clark to continue negotiations with a private company to install a video-conference network to link Las Vegas with the Reno office.
The meeting Thursday was in the state Contractor's Board meeting room, which has a video-conference link.
Clark said he talked with University and Community College System officials about a similar hookup but the system wanted $54,600 to set it up, which was a higher price than the private company's quote.
The problem is that the examiners board does not have an office in Las Vegas to hook the video system into. Government offices are closed on Saturday, the day it conducts the second day of a two-day meeting.
Dr. Edwin Kingsley, president of the Clark County Medical Association, offered to allow the state board to use its conference room for the video-conferenced meetings.
Board members reacted favorably to the offer and will probably make a decision at the December meeting.
Baepler said physicians rarely have to visit the board's offices.
During the Legislature, state Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, suggested that the board be moved from Reno to Las Vegas, where about 70 percent of the state's physicians are located. Rawson and others subsequently pushed for a branch office in Southern Nevada.
Dr. Cheryl A. Hug-English, president of the board, had agreed to consider adding an office in Las Vegas. She said there should be "strong communications" with Southern Nevada physicians.
The board previously had a branch office in Las Vegas but closed it because there was no activity.
In other action:
-- The examiners board approved the start of workshops to develop a regulation, as ordered by the Legislature, requiring all physicians to have four hours of continuing medical education in terrorism and mass destruction.
Doctors are now required to have 40 hours of continuing education every two years. Board Counsel Richard Legarza said this would be a one-time, four-hour training course but it would have to be completed by September 2005.
The requirement was part of the Homeland Security legislation approved by lawmakers.
The Legislature also said the examiners board should encourage physicians who treat patients older than 60 to take continuing education in geriatrics or gerontology.
To encourage these physicians to take these courses, the board is offering them a double bonus. Under the proposed regulation that could be adopted in December, a doctor who takes four hours of education in the subjects will be credited with eight hours towards the biennial requirement of 40 hours of general continuing education.
The board also approved a $3 million budget for this fiscal year. Baepler, who is chairman of the budget committee, said this is about the same operating budget as last fiscal year. He said the only major added expenses were two new positions.
The board has hired Clark in the new position as deputy executive director to get prepared to replace executive director Larry Lessly, who will retire in June. The board on Thursday approved the hiring of state Deputy Attorney General Stephen Quinn to be deputy general counsel to prepare him to replace Legarza, who is also retiring in June.
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