State shouldn’t close John de la Howe School
To the editor:
Thank you, Bill Davis, for your article on John de la Howe in the March 10 issue of Statehouse Report. I appreciate the coverage you’ve given to the agency, and I’ve enjoyed reading your email newsletter over the past several years.
I serve on the Board of Trustees of the John de la Howe School and would like to provide some additional background information. … Here’s the link to the article in the March 6 Greenwood Index-Journal about the LOC hearing: http://www.indexjournal.com/news/In-defense-of-John-de-la-Howe-20171324
And here’s the link to the article in the March 7 Index-Journal about the proposed Governor’s School of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Research at John de la Howe: http://www.indexjournal.com/news/JDLH-board-proposes-shift-to-governor-s-school-20193883
I hope that you will use it as background information and as a counterbalance to the disinformation you may hear that is being spread about the agency in efforts to close it down. I also hope you will visit the campus and see first-hand what it has to offer children and families and how it is an ideal resource for expanded agricultural education.
— Barbara Devinney, McCormick, S.C.
More support positive changes for nurse practitioners
Editor’s note: Here are some more letters sent in response to our May 3 story on an effort to allow more flexibility in how nurse practitioners provide health care.
To the editor:
I feel very strongly that we, as a state, are doing our population a significant disservice by limiting the ability of the nurse practitioners to utilize their licenses to the maximum. This is proven in many ways, but particularly by the limited availability of physicians’ practicing primary care in the rural areas of South Carolina.
Limiting the ability of the citizens of this state from having access to care when our physicians do not meet that need makes no sense — especially when you look at the quality of care provided by the nurse practitioner. Despite [the fact that] their education is less than that of the physician, it has been demonstrated repeatedly in surveys and in reviews that they provide excellent care.
Our quantity of education being less than that of the physician does not limit our ability to provide good healthcare to our patients. One of the first caveats that we, as nurse practitioners, are taught is to recognize what we do not know and seek that information so that we can deliver the best care possible for our patients.
The State of South Carolina should look at this issue without tinted glasses. What is more important here – quality health care for our citizens or the personal feeling of our physicians in this state. I personally believe that the citizens of South Carolina come first!
— Angie R. Cook, MSN, APRN, BC, FNP, West Columbia, S.C.
To the editor:
Re: S. 345
Even though the South Carolina Medical Association and its partners agree they have no evidence that nurse practitioners require supervision by them, they insist they need to be the ‘leaders’ of the team.
An M.D. degree does not make you a leader. It makes you a physician. Besides, with most M.D.s being employees of hospitals or health care systems, they are not even the boss of their own practices, let alone leaders. Although they deny it, this is all about turf and money.
— Randy Beckett, DNP, DC, NP-C, PMHNP-BC, FNP, Mount Pleasant, S.C.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
According to the FTC Staff guidance on Active Supervision of State Regulatory Boards Controlled by Market Participants, written in reponse to the NC State Bd. of Dental Exam’rs vs. FTC, 135 S. Ct. 1101 (https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/attachments/competition-policy-guidance/active_supervision_of_state_boards.pdf), a board that consists of market participants, in this case physicians and nurse practitioners, requires active supervision by state legislatures when making decisions that affect the market (in this case the healthcare field). However, the Joint Committee of the Board of Nursing and Board of Medicine in South Carolina have been consistently making exceptions to the law as to what particular Nurse Practititioners can do, involving the miles they can be from their supervisor and the ratios of supervising physicians to their assigned nurse practitioners. Instead of the boards continuing to make these exceptions without active supervision of the state legislature and without abiding by anti-trust laws, it makes more sense to modernize the out dated laws on nurse practitioner autonomy by passing SB-345 which would allow Nurse Practitioners to practice with more autonomy, which has often been occurring anyway because of the Boards’ numerous exceptions.
Ms Jackie has been taking care of me since I was a teenager. She is great and cares a lot of me and my family including my granny. She is right on with her diagnosis because when I go to the ERs they don’t know me well– and try to keep me calm with pain medication. I personally don’t want pain meds- since Ms. Jackie knows this she is always trying to help me stay healthy, helps me lose weight, and encourage me to do better so that I can like a happy life in spite of my chronic pain issues that I suffer with. Since I have a 4 month old baby and a 3 year old son, I need to not be sleepy and tired all the time and need alternatives to function and take care of my family. Now I drive all the way from North Charleston to see Ms. Jackie. She need to be allowed to do tele-health so that she can continue to help me when it is difficult for me to drive or pay for gas to get to the clinic. SC need to get on and change it old laws RIGHT A WAY! My friends and family support NPs like Ms Jackie- WE NEED NEW LAWS ASAP so that NPs can continue helping our communities!!
We need to change the laws in South Carolina right away to help our NPs!!I have been coming to Ms. Jackie for over ten years. She is well prepared to take care of me as a Veternan and keeps me out of the hospital and the ERs. Even if the VA is closed I come here and can depend on Ms. Jackie to take good care of me. I bring my friends and family and trust her with my health. Even one time when I got sick and could not go to the VA, Ms. Jackie checked me out and sent me to Cardiologist and the next day they had to put a stent in my heart that saved me. Without her catching this in time, I would have died. I was going to the VA for at least five years and was complaining about my symtoms but they never could diagnose what was wrong, till Ms. Jackie found out. She is extra careful with all her patients and will get them to the right place if she can.. I have lived on this Island for fifty years, and have seen a lot. Many clinics and doctors have come and gone but Ms. Jackie has stayed. Since she knows us well, we don’t have to drive all around and wait for a long time to be seen. We need to change our laws to help Ms. Jackie keep her clinic open because we depend on her taking great care of all of us!!
I have attached at map of the under-utized areas in SC in desperate need of health care. https://www.scdhec.gov/Health/docs/SC%20Medically%20Underserved%20Areas%20-%20Map.pdf
When are we going to update our Nurse Practice Act that is 40 years old? Nurse practitioners are a under-utilized workforce that is zero-cost for our State. If they are educated and licensed — why are these outdated barriers still in play? For example, in Wyoming NPs are practicing at the top of the licensure without barriers and providing care for rural populations but when they come to SC with the same education and licensure they have to be tethered to a MD at a 45-mile radius? This make no sense to me as a taxpayer- same NP with the same education and license having to do less in spite of her skill set–
Why is SC law holding our NPs back? Patients need access to care? Why….let us follow the evidence and improve the quality of care for our SC citizens- According to the rankings we have an F in healthcare but are the 2nd costliest in the Nation.
As a SC tax-payer I want to know WHY?