Minutes of

North Carolina State Board of Optometry

July 29-August 1, 2005

Wachovia Bank Building and

Jane McKimmon Center

Raleigh, North Carolina

 

 

 

The North Carolina State Board of Optometry met in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday, July 29 through Monday, August 1, 2005 to conduct the Summer 2005 Clinical/Practicum Examinations at the Jane McKimmon Center on the Campus of North Carolina State University and for other purposes.  Present were Drs. David Baxter, President, William Rafferty, Secretary/Treasurer and Drs. David Anderson, Joel Banks, William Hendrix and Ms. Trudy Mitchell and Mary Richardson, Members of the Board.  Present as Staff were John D. Robinson, OD, Executive Director, Janice Peterson, RN, Administrative Secretary, and Mrs. Sara Roberts, Administrative Assistant.  Mr. Johnny Loper, the Board’s Attorney, was present on Friday evening to meet with the Board in closed session to discuss terms of the settlement of the current litigation following mediation between the parties on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 in Raleigh, and to answer questions pertaining thereto.

 

Present for the station set-up and orientation on Saturday morning were the following Clinical Examiners: Drs. Tom Bull, Kenny Bumgarner, Ania Hamp, Don MacQueen, Maggie Metwalli, John Miller, Sandra Moore, Eric Oberdorf, Robert Rosenstein, and Matthew Vizithum.

 

At its first meeting on Friday evening, the President called the meeting of the Board to order at 6:50 p.m.  Dr. Banks was asked to open the meeting with prayer.

 

On a motion by Dr. Hendrix, seconded by Dr. Anderson and carried unanimously, the Board went into Closed Session in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, specifically G.S. 143-318.11(a)(3), to receive a report and advice from Mr. Loper regarding the injections lawsuit, and particularly the mediation that occurred on July 27 regarding the two appeals filed by the Medical Board.  Mr. Loper described to the Board the events of the July 27th mediation that led to the Memo of Settlement being executed by representatives of the Optometry Board and Medical Board.  After briefing the Board and responding to the Board’s questions and inquiries with regard to the status of the litigation, the mediation, the pros and cons of the Memo of Settlement, and related issues, Mr. Loper requested that the Board, as provided in paragraph 8 of the Memo of Settlement, consider the memo and then either approve or disapprove of the Memo of Settlement.  The President called for a show of hands of those Members favoring the approval of the terms of the Memo of Settlement so as to determine whether further information or advice from Mr. Loper was needed in closed session before a formal vote would be taken.  There being no further questions of the attorney and there appearing a unanimous agreement among the Members of the Board to approve the Memo of Settlement, the President called for a motion to return to open session.  The motion to return to open session was made by Dr. Hendrix, seconded by Dr. Anderson and carried unanimously.

 

Approval of the Memo of Settlement:  On a motion by Dr. Banks and seconded by Dr. Anderson, the Board voted unanimously to (1) approve the terms of the Memo of Settlement; (2) instruct the Board’s attorney to so inform the attorneys for the Medical Board; (3) instruct the Board’s attorney to work with the attorneys for the Medical Board to prepare a final settlement agreement; and (4) authorize the President to execute the final settlement agreement when it is determined by the Board attorney and Board representatives who attended the mediation to be in conformity with the agreement reached at mediation.

 

Review of Complaints:  The Executive Director reported that no new complaints had been received since the last meeting of the Board.

 

Approval of Minutes:  On a motion by Dr. Anderson, seconded by Ms. Mitchell and carried unanimously, the Minutes of the Meeting held in Myrtle Beach, June 1-5, 2005, as corrected were approved.  On a motion by Dr. Hendrix, seconded by Dr. Anderson and carried unanimously, the minutes of the Annual Meeting held on June 15, 2005, by conference telephone as corrected were approved.

 

Clinical Examiners Honorarium:  On a motion by Dr. Hendrix, seconded by Dr. Rafferty and carried unanimously, four days honorarium, travel and meal expenses for the Clinical Examiners were approved.

 

Report of the President:  The President had no formal report.

 

Report of the Secretary/Treasurer:  Dr. Rafferty presented the Budget Reports for the periods 07/01/05 through 08/01/05.  Following the answering of questions, a motion was made by Dr. Hendrix and seconded by Ms. Mitchell that the report of the Secretary/Treasurer be accepted.  The motion carried unanimously.

 

Report of the Executive Director:  The Executive Director advised the Board that upon approval of the terms of the Memo of Settlement of the lawsuit by the Medical Board it would be advisable for this Board to quickly advise every North Carolina licensed optometrist of the Settlement and that certification by the Board to perform the procedures set forth in the Agreement to be drawn by the attorneys in accordance with the terms of the Memo of Settlement would be forthcoming over the next several months.  Further, that until the licensee has met all the requirements established by the Board to be certified in any given procedure that is the subject of the Agreement and the licensee has fully met said requirements and has been certified in accordance with such requirements, no optometrist is to perform any procedure which has been the subject of this litigation.  On a motion by Ms. Mitchell, seconded by Ms. Richardson and carried unanimously, the report of the Executive Director was accepted.

 

Meeting with Mssrs. Patterson and Considine dba CPY Technolgoies:  At the request of the Board, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Considine met with the Board on Saturday morning to explain the delay in conversion of the Board’s data system to a “windows operating system”.  A system that was promised to be complete in order to begin entering data on March 1, 2004 was postponed until March 1, 2005, at which time the Board’s staff began entering data from the 2005 license renewal forms.  It was immediately apparent that the new system was not functioning properly.  Further, efforts to rectify the problems have been to no avail.  Mr. Patterson and Mr. Considine apologized for their failure in completing the conversion of the data system to windows and placed the blame on their lack of personal time to devote to the task and the fact that they had not been given the authority to hire “professional programmers” to help with the task.  It was pointed out to them that the Board had never been told of the need for “professional programmers” to complete the task or for authorization to hire them.  Following adequate discussion, the Board agreed to submit a memorandum listing and/or summarizing the problems that exist with the system as of the date of this meeting and of those features that were available and working under the old d-base operating system and that are either missing or not functional in the windows program as currently loaded on its system by CPY Technologies within ten days of today.  Mr. Patterson and Mr. Considine on behalf of their company, CPY Technologies, agreed that on receipt of the Board’s memorandum they would prepare a contract outlining the work to be completed along with the costs and time involved in completing the conversion of the Board’s data system to a windows based operating system to the satisfaction of the Board and in accordance with such agreement or contract in the event that it is accepted by the Board.  Such proposal or contract will be forwarded to the Board for its review no later than ten days following the date of the Board’s memo.

 

The following individuals, their applications having been approved, appeared for examination:

 

            Matthew Bailey

            Artis Beatty

            Lisa Bell

            Scott Blaney

            Amanda Britt

            David Brown

            Adam Bryan

            Kristy Bryan

            Brandi Chavis

            Jason Chow

            David Cohen

            Elizabeth Cooke

            Heather Day

            Sandra Farnham

            Lisa Fuller

            Scott Gordon

            Juawana Hall

            Amy Harper

            Teresa Hsu

            Jarett Mazzarella

            Robert Naylor

            Kevin Ritter

            Punam Saini

            Stacey Singletary

            Arun Subramanian

            Kristina Swartz

            Philip Vrkljan

            Aaron Westerlund

 

 

Examination Review:  In the event that there are candidates who wish to review their examination scores following the receipt of the results of the Summer 2005 Examinations, the President appointed Dr. Anderson to represent the Board along with the Executive Director in conducting the review(s).

 

The next meeting of the Board will be held in Wallace, North Carolina, September 10-11, 2005.

 

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                            Approved 09/10/05