My name is Anita Savell

I am a first-year medical student at UNR Med. Through this column I will share my medical school experience I progress through my education.

With just one month of medical school behind me, I have a lot to learn, but in this short time I have already learned several important lessons. First, everything people say about the demands of medical school is true. In order to stay on top of the flow of information, I am either in class or studying from 8am until 10pm. After learning lesson one, I quickly learned lesson two: the importance of balance. I have begun building things I can look forward to into my schedule.

Medical school is a constant challenge and the admissions process reflects this rigor.

The medical school application cycle made for a grueling year. With June came over twenty drafts of a personal statement. July saw an onslaught of secondary applications and late nights writing after long days working in a laboratory. August through February brought a half dozen interviews spanning the country as I balanced traveling with finishing my senior year in electrical engineering.

Advocate For Physicians In Nevada

August is always an exciting month at UNR Med, as new students arrive to begin their medical studies and careers.

This August was more exciting than usual. UNR Med welcomed the Class of 2021 to our fully northern Nevada-based medical school with a new and exciting orientation experience – MedFIT.

MedFIT is modeled after NevadaFIT, the academic boot camp for incoming University of Nevada, Reno undergraduates. Rather than a quick one- or two-day orientation, where students are told about our School of Medicine, they get to experience UNR Med firsthand.

Our 70 new students were involved in activities designed to build relationships with UNR Med and main campus faculty and staff, and perhaps more importantly, with each other. An extremely interesting group, our incoming class speaks 20 languages, has lived in or traveled to 28 countries and has interests ranging from skydiving to playing the French horn to fighting wildfires.

The two-week orientation included labs, lectures, team building exercises, one-on-ones with faculty and leadership, and Art Rounds – an innovative visual teaching session. MedFIT concluded with Family Day and the time-honored White Coat Ceremony, where each student committed to a lifetime of learning, teaching and compassionate care by reciting the Honor Pledge.

I hope all of you had a fun summer full of great memories.

Summer always seems to be over in the blink of an eye. As a kid, I always thought that was just because school was out. Turns out, summers seem to be over even faster as an adult!

Similarly, business is whisking along for the Washoe County Medical Society. Over the past few months, Mary Ann McCauley has created an incredible strategic plan with great input from our WCMS members, which sets our goals for the next few years. She also has been exploring ways WCMS can collaborate with other local organizations to improve the health of our community.

As a great example, WCMS will partner with Immunize Nevada, Renown, and the University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine to promote a fascinating vaccine documentary which will be shown for medical students, residents and undergraduate health sciences students at UNR (WCMS members are also invited!). Every time I mention I am the current WCMS President to someone in the community, I inevitably hear praise for Mary Ann and the energy she brings to WCMS.

Another example of “good energy” was the recent turn out of WCMS delegates for the Nevada State Medical Association annual meeting.

I want to thank all the delegates for taking time away from their families and work on a precious weekend to share their expertise. Every year, I walk away from the NSMA meeting having learned something from my colleagues and this year was no different. We had several thoughtful resolutions that addressed issues such as obesity, domestic abuse, “stop the bleed” education, patient care surveys, and maintenance of certification. If you haven’t had a chance to see the final versions of the resolutions, check them out on the NSMA website.

This year’s NSMA meeting was also notable for our own Dr. Steven Parker being sworn in as NSMA president. All of us at WCMS are looking forward to working with Dr. Parker during his tenure and are excited about fixing some of the database and website problems we have in common over the next few months.

Finally, one other bit of good news. After numerous meetings and some incredible work from Catherine O’Mara, the Nevada Board of Pharmacy recently agreed to a new regulation allowing medical assistants and other delegated agents to initiate electronic prescriptions for medications under the supervision of a physician. While there is still one small hurdle to go before it’s official, we were excited to see this change. WCMS and NSMA will work with practices to make sure that medical assistants are properly trained on e-prescribing and will collaborate with the Board of Pharmacy on the content of this training.

Now that fall is here, I hope you enjoy the cooler temps, changing colors, and getting outside in the mountains for this incredible time of year.

Connect with Your Colleagues at Nevada State Medical Association

“Engage for a Bright Future,” NSMA’s 113th annual meeting and scientific session, is being held Aug. 25-27 at the all new Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel. The newly refurbished hotel, located on the banks of the mighty Truckee River, will be an enjoyable venue to continue our work as physician and patient advocates.

Your participation as a member, delegate, or alternate delegate is vitally important as NSMA convenes the house of delegates to formulate and articulate the association’s policies and legislative positions.

The session kicks off Friday with the NSMA council meeting, a membership strategic planning meeting, the opening of the house of delegates and culminates with an opportunity to earn two units of CME provided by Dr. Lesley Dickson and co-sponsored by Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center: “Suicide Prevention: How to Save a Life.”

On Saturday, the house of delegates and reference committees will meet to consider and evaluate proposed resolutions. Plan on attending our new scientific poster session where our state’s medical students present their scholarly work. In the afternoon, join us for a friendly rivalry of bocce ball. Families are welcome to join this event.

Advocate For Physicians In Nevada

The Washoe County Medical Society (WCMS) and the Nevada State Medical Association (NSMA) advocate for physicians in the legislature and in front of regulatory boards such as the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners, Nevada Dental Board, Board of Osteopathic Medicine, State Board of Pharmacy and the State Board of Health, among others.

2016-2017 Regulatory Successes

• Successfully defeated a Dental Board regulation which authorized Dentists and Dental hygienists to administer botulinum toxin (“botox”) and dermal filers.
• Successfully defeated a Board of Health regulation which would require all providers of care to report actual or suspected cancer to the Cancer Registry or face a $25,000 fine.
• Successfully lobbied to pass a new regulation that allows physician prescribers to delegate the transmission of an electronic prescription to a designated agent such as an RN, MA or scribe.
• Successfully negotiated a Board of Medical Examiner’s regulation to provide common sense guidelines for physician oversight of a Medical Assistant.

2017 Legislative Successes

• Secured Governor’s veto of an insurance company bill that would ban balance billing and cap fees for out of network health care services to the insurer’s economic advantage.
• Negotiated with the Governor’s office to ensure new opioid legislation preserves clinical judgment and avoids draconian prescribing caps found in other states.
• Improved a collaborative pharmacy bill to ensure that physician’s oversight and clinical judgment directs the patient care and to clarify in Nevada law that pharmacists do not diagnose.
• Negotiated a common-sense revision to a proposed partnership bill which allows physicians and psychologists to form partnerships and still protects the tenants of Nevada’s implied prohibition of the corporate practice of medicine.
• Defeated a measure which would criminalize and prohibit a physician from performing any procedure deemed to reassign the anatomical sex of a patient including relocating the urethral meatus, unless the child assented to the procedure.
• Successfully removed physicians from a bill that would assess a “provider tax” on all physicians to leverage monies for Medicaid funding.
  Protected patients from unskilled application of botulinum toxin
  (“botox”) by limiting those licensed professionals who may administer and requiring that botox injections be administered only by licensed professionals in a medical facility.
• Protected Ambulatory Surgical Centers from attempts by hospitals to force certain procedures into hospitals.
• Secured Governor’s veto of a bill that would allow any Nevadan to purchase Medicaid without limitation.
• Negotiated the reduction of proposed mandatory CME for suicide prevention from 3 CME units every two years to 2 CME units every four years.
• Worked with Board of Medical Examiners to authorize their ability to take possession of records due to physician death or another incapacitation.

WCMS Dean’s Dispatch

August is always an exciting month at UNR Med, as new students arrive to begin their medical studies and careers. This August was more exciting than usual. UNR Med welcomed the Class of 2021 to our fully northern Nevada-based medical school with a new and exciting orientation experience – MedFIT.

MedFIT is modeled after NevadaFIT, the academic boot camp for incoming University of Nevada, Reno undergraduates. Rather than a quick one- or two-day orientation, where students are told about our School of Medicine, they get to experience UNR Med firsthand.

Our 70 new students were involved in activities designed to build relationships with UNR Med and main campus faculty and staff, and perhaps more importantly, with each other. An extremely interesting group, our incoming class speaks 20 languages, has lived in or traveled to 28 countries and has interests ranging from skydiving to playing the French horn to fighting wildfires.

I hope all of you had a fun summer full of great memories. Summer always seems to be over in the blink of an eye. As a kid, I always thought that was just because school was out. Turns out, summers seem to be over even faster as an adult!

Similarly, business is whisking along for the Washoe County Medical Society. Over the past few months, Mary Ann McCauley has created an incredible strategic plan with great input from our WCMS members, which sets our goals for the next few years. She also has been exploring ways WCMS can collaborate with other local organizations to improve the health of our community.

Observations from the Legal Trenches

Avoiding Employee Issues

Medical practices excel at assuring compliance with laws regulating the practice of medicine. However many falter when it comes to properly handling employment issues.

Many small and medium sized practices use third-party payroll/human resource agencies for employment matters. While such outsourcing can be of great assistance to a practice, there will always remain certain employee matters must be addressed internally. Employment issues crop up most frequently when an employee has or is about to be terminated. An employee, past or present, may file some type of claim regarding their termination with a governmental agency or in some cases take legal action for alleged wrongful termination.

Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) Grant

As part of the 2-year, $1 billion federal initiative called The Cures Act, the State of Nevada was awarded approximately $5.6 million per year to implement a multi-pronged approach aimed at addressing the opioid crisis. Nevada has included Project ECHO in their approach and we will be collaborating on a number of initiatives. We are thrilled to announce the expansion of the Pain Management ECHO clinic to twice per month, bringing a host of new topics intended to help primary care providers adapt to the ever-changing environment around prescribing practices, regulations, and pain management.

Additionally, an entirely new ECHO clinic that we hope to launch as early as mid-September will focus on providing support to providers who are currently Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) certified or are interested in becoming MAT certified. We understand the gap that exists between obtaining MAT certification and actually beginning to prescribe different Medication Assisted Therapies to patients. We have assembled the very best multidisciplinary team of MAT providers available to us to help you navigate that process and serve as a resource for you as you gain the confidence and experience you’ll need to become a MAT prescriber.