SB 12-EXTEND BOARD OF NURSING  1:33:37 PM SENATOR EGAN announced the consideration of SB 12. CELESTE HODGE, staff to Senator Davis, explained that SB 12 extends the termination date of the Alaska Board of Nursing (BON) for eight years to June 30, 2019, as recommended by the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee in its report of December 2010. The mission of the Alaska Board of Nursing is to actively promote and protect the health of the citizens of Alaska through the safe and effective practice of nursing as defined by law. The BON plays an important role in public health and safety. NANCY SANDERS, Executive Administrator, Alaska Board of Nursing, stated she was available to answer questions. SENATOR DYSON asked if the BON deals with licensing censure issues. MS. SANDERS responded yes, if there is a complaint from the public or from another licensee, it is investigated, and if it is founded, the BON acts to discipline the person's license 1:35:26 PM SENATOR DYSON said he was specifically referring to complaints having to do with poor medical practice, and asked in the last five years how many complaints have they heard per year, and what percentage of those resulted in disciplinary actions? MS. SANDERS replied that she did not have specific numbers in front of her. SENATOR DYSON asked if she could give him a general idea. MS. SANDERS replied the board acts on several types of complaints, such as competency audits, inaccurate information on an application, and unprofessional conduct. If there was a violation of unprofessional conduct regulations, the person would be disciplined. SENATOR DYSON asked if they see unprofessional conduct that affects patients. MS. SANDERS said they do see those types of complaints, but they are not the majority; probably five to eight per quarterly board meeting. SENATOR DYSON responded that he would like to see statistics for the last four or five years. MS. SANDERS said the investigations unit would have the number of complaints, but she would only know the number that resulted in actions. 1:39:52 PM SENATOR DYSON said there was no hurry to receive the statistics, and then asked which groups of nurses can write prescriptions. MS. SANDERS said that nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and certified nurse anesthetists can write prescriptions. SENATOR DYSON asked if licensed nurses in Alaska are ever under any pressure to not report unprofessional conduct. MS. SANDERS replied not that she was aware of. 1:43:48 PM PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor, Division of Legislative Audit, Alaska State Legislature, said she performed the sunset review of the Board of Nursing (BON), and recommended that the termination date be extended until June 30, 2019. She noted that she also made four recommendations to the BON, as follows: · The BON should take action to insure that appropriate people and agencies are notified when a nurse's prescriptive authority is revoked. · The BON needs to improve oversight of the CNA training program, especially in terms of the evaluation process. · The current LPN member on the BON does not meet statutory qualifications, which require that member to be working in an institutional nursing situation. The member who was on the Board during the review was an LPN working as an Emergency Medical Technician. · Fourth, the Division of Corporate, Professional and Business Licenses needs to do more timely investigation of complaints made against licensees. 1:44:04 PM SENATOR DYSON asked if the BON has a plan of action to address the Audit Division's recommendations. MS. SANDERS responded that they are aware of the recommendations and are taking steps to address them, as follows: · The BON has instituted policies to notify the federal Drug Enforcement Administration on the first day after a board meeting in which the board took action to suspend a nurse practitioner's authority to write prescriptions. · The BON is submitting those names to the Board of Pharmacy, and if there is an employer they are letting them know about the suspension or revocation. They are also updating the disciplinary database on their web site within two weeks of the revocation. · The division is aware that the CNA training program review is a federal mandate that is also in their regulations. There have been personnel issues, resulting in the position reviewing the programs being unfilled. The current person is on a two-year contract. Eighty-five percent of the CNA programs have been recently reviewed and reapproved or not by the BON. · The current LPN term on the board expires at the end of February and a new person has been appointed to board in the LPN position. 1:45:36 PM MS SANDERS further explained that the suspension or revocation of a licensed nurse practitioner's license is a very rare occurrence, and that in four years it has only happened three times. 1:47:45 PM SENATOR MEYER moved to report SB 12 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, SB 12 moved from the Senate Health and Social Services Standing Committee.