Ben Philipson

With insurance coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act, healthcare resource utilization is up slightly. So take the time on March 30 to recognize the work our nation’s physicians do by thanking your healthcare provider on National Doctors’ Day.

  President George H.W. Bush signed the bill making this day into a national holiday in 1990. The holiday was created to recognize the contributions of great pioneers in medical research.

  The president specifically mentioned members of the National Institutes of Health who were fighting the growing AIDS epidemic, as well as Dr. Charles S. Drew, who developed large-scale blood banks early in World War II, and Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first pericardium surgery—a procedure that cuts a small hole in the membrane surrounding the heart—to repair a wound.

  “In addition to the doctors whose name we easily recognize, there are countless others who carry on the quite work of healing each day in communities throughout the United States,” President Bush wrote in 1991.

  However, March 30 was being used as a day to honor physicians as early as 1933, when Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond, set aside the day. The first observance of the day included mailing greeting cards and placing flowers on the graves of deceased doctors.

  On this National Doctors’ Day, in addition to recognizing the work your physicians do for you and the community, remember those who put themselves at risk to care for Ebola patients in West Africa during the epidemic. A total of 3 American doctors, Craig Spencer, MD, Kent Brantly, MD, and Rick Sacra, MD, all contracted Ebola in West Africa while treating patients, but were flown back to the US, treated, and later released when they were virus-free.

Part of the I-STOP law was the requirement of electronic prescriptions, which would be used to prevent fraud and abuse of prescription drugs. However, pressure from state lawmakers and the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY), Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to a one-year delay of the electronic prescribing requirement.

The mandate will now go into effect March 27, 2016, and will apply to all prescribers and to all medications. The purpose of the delay is to allow more time for prescribers to get their systems running and certified by the Drug Enforcement Agency

"Certainly, there remain many logistical issues that need to be addressed before this mandate goes into effect, but we now have a greater amount of time to work through these issues,” MSSNY President Andrew Kleinman, MD, wrote on the website

The measure to delay the deadline was unanimously passed by the state Assembly and approved by the state Senate. However, the delay only affects the e-prescription provision of the I-STOP program.

Despite the extra time, MSSNY and Surescripts are urging providers to comply with the requirement as quickly as possible.

 There will remain instances when paper prescriptions can still be written under I-STOP, such as temporary technological or electrical failures. Another instance would be if the practitioner determines it would be impractical for the patient to obtain substances prescribed electronically in a timely manner and the delay would adversely impact the patient’s medical condition. In addition, practitioners may also issue paper prescriptions if the pharmacy is located outside of New York.

Although the New York doctor and the Dallas nurses with Ebola have all been officially declared free of the virus and released, a physician being treated in Nebraska passed away from Ebola this week. 

The surgeon contracted the virus while working in Sierra Leone. Martin Salia, MD, was originally from Sierra Leona, but was living in Maryland. He is the second person to die from the virus in the United States after Thomas Eric Duncan passed away in Dallas at the beginning of October.

Dr. Salia came down with Ebola symptoms on November 6, but tested negative for the virus initially. Once he tested positive, he was flown to the Nebraska Medical Center, which had already treated and cured 2 other patients. However, the 44-year-old surgeon was in much more serious condition by the time he arrived at the hospital.

He was already suffering advanced symptoms of Ebola, which include kidney and respiratory failure. In addition to being placed on dialysis, a ventilator, and multiple medications, he also received a dose of ZMapp therapy.

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