NCMB meets during odd numbered months (January, March, May, etc.) Due to this schedule, Board meeting minutes are not available until approximately two months after the covered meeting. To keep licensees informed, NCMB publishes a summary of select events from each meeting. The meeting summary is generally limited to action items that have been finally approved or decided by the Board. Items that are presented for information only or that make only incremental progress toward completion are not reported. The summary also includes new business and special presentations made by visitors. Business is organized by committee. The meeting summary is available online at http://goo.gl/mEEODq

Allied Health

• Board approves proposal for EMS Advisory Group: The Board accepted the Committee’s recommendation to establish an EMS Advisory group to advise and make recommendations to the Board on EMS requests for Scope of Practice changes. The advisory group would include representatives of the NC College of Emergency Physicians, the NC Chapter of the National Association of EMS Physicians, the NC Committee on Trauma, the NC Association of EMS Administrators, and one outside/unaffiliated physician. The State Medical Director would chair the Committee. The Advisory Group would bring together all the major EMS stakeholder organizations to evaluate and initiate requests for scope of practice changes. The Advisory Group would also perform periodic reviews and audit Scope of Practice and Formulary documents. The Advisory Group’s opinions and recommendations would be presented to the Allied Health Committee (AHC).
• NC CSRS data sharing with NC Board of Nursing: The Board approved plans to amend administrative rules (21 NCAC 32Y.0101) that would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to provide certain data from the North Carolina Controlled Substance Registry System to the Board of Nursing regarding the prescribing practices of nurse practitioners.

CPP Joint Subcommittee

• Rule changes to amend CPP supervisory model: The Board approved plans to amend administrative rules regarding supervision of clinical pharmacist practitioners (CPPs) to create a primary and back-up supervising physician model similar to that involving physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
• Shift of primary CPP registration, approval and tracking to the NC Board of Pharmacy: Presently, both the NC Board of Pharmacy and NCMB both process applications for approval of Clinical Pharmacist Practitioners (CPP). The Board approved minor rule changes to transfer primary responsibility for processing applications and renewals to the NC Board of Pharmacy.

Licensing Committee

• Misdemeanor charges or convictions that do not require legal review: In July 2014, the Board voted to allow the Licensing Department to process otherwise clean applications where the applicant truthfully reports one minor misdemeanor charge and/ or conviction that occurred more than five years ago and prior to professional school without the need for the application to be reviewed by the Legal Department or Senior Staff Review Committee. Additionally, these applications would not be reviewed by a Board Member. If the applicant does not truthfully report the charge or conviction or if there are any other issues on the application, the application still requires Legal Department and/or Office of Medical Director review. The Board approved an additional type of misdemeanor (specifically, “open container” charges/convictions) to the “applicable misdemeanors” list.

Physician Assistant Advisory Council

• Record Retention Rule for PAs: The Committee discussed whether the requirement that records of PA and physician quality improvement meetings be maintained for a minimum of three years be added to Board Rule 21 NCAC 32S.0213. Currently, nurse practitioners (NPs) retain records of Quality Improvement meetings for five years. The Board approved the Committee’s recommendation to add this item to the Allied Health Committee agenda in November.

Executive Committee

• Proposed Budget (FY 2015-2016): The Board approved NCMB’s operating budget for fiscal year 2015-2016. The proposed budget includes funds requested by the Policy Committee in July to use professional consulting services, if needed, to review the Office Based Procedures position statement.