Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1203108
47 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY 28 states with full practice authority for NPs By Emily Rappleye W hile states like California con- tinue to debate the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, many others have opted to allow NPs to practice without physician supervision. Based on a fact sheet from the Healthforce Center at University of California San Fran- cisco and the California Health Care Foun- dation, 28 states currently allow NPs full practice authority to treat and prescribe without formal oversight. In addition to the District of Columbia, the following states grant full practice authority as soon as NPs earn their licenses: 1. Alaska 2. Arizona 3. Hawaii 4. Idaho 5. Iowa 6. Montana 7. New Hampshire 8. New Mexico 9. North Dakota 10. Oregon 11. Rhode Island 12. Utah 13. Washington 14. Wyoming e following states allow NPs to earn full practice authority aer practicing with phy- sician oversight for a set number of hours. 1. Colorado — 1,000 hours for prescrip- tive authority 2. Connecticut — 3 years and 2,000 hours 3. Delaware — 2 years and 4,000 hours 4. Illinois — 4,000 hours 5. Kentucky — 4 years 6. Maine — 2 years 7. Maryland — 1.5 years 8. Minnesota — 2,080 hours 9. Nebraska — 2,000 hours 10. Nevada — 2 years or 2,000 hours 11. South Dakota — 1,040 hours 12. Vermont — 2 years and 2,400 hours 13. Virginia — 5 years and 9,000 hours 14. West Virginia — 3 years n Nurse sues Pennsylvania hospital, says it fired her for refusing flu shot By Gabrielle Masson A nurse filed a lawsuit against Penn Medicine Lancaster (Pa.) General Health Dec. 5, 2019, alleging re- ligious discrimination after she was fired for not getting a flu shot, CBS 21 reported. Since 2012, Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine has required all healthcare professionals to get a flu shot every year, unless an exemption is request- ed and approved. Shyanne Aukamp-Corcoran began working for the organization in 2001, the lawsuit stated, and received the flu shot from 2012 to November 2016. Around this time, she began attending church services and believing her re- ligion required her to keep her body pure from any contaminants, the law- suit claimed. After having a miscarriage in May 2017, Ms. Aukamp-Corcoran discovered the flu shot could increase the risk for mis- carriage, the lawsuit stated. Due to her medical concerns and re- ligious beliefs, the nurse chose not to receive any vaccinations, the suit claimed. Her request for exemption, however, was denied Dec. 22, 2017. Ms. Aukamp-Corcoran still did not get the flu shot. She was fired Jan. 5, 2018, for failing to receive the vacci- nation, the suit claimed. "As a general practice, we do not com- ment on ongoing litigation or person- nel matters," Penn Medicine said in a statement to CBS 21. "Many hospitals across the country have mandatory flu vaccination programs to provide for the health and safety of their patients, visitors and employees." n Neurologist sues patient family member for bad Yelp review By Emily Rappleye N andigam Neurology in Murfreesboro, Tenn., filed a $25,000 lawsuit against a patient's family member after she posted a negative review of neurologist Kaveer Nandigam, MD, on Yelp, local news station WTVF reported. The defendants were Kelly Beavers, who wrote the Yelp review, and one of her son's friends, who wrote a negative review of the practice on Google. They were sued for def- amation, libel and conspiring to post misleading statements, according to the report. The review read: "This 'Dr's' [sic] behavior today was totally unprofessional and unethi- cal, to put it mildly. I will be reporting him to the State of TN [sic] Medical Review Board and be filing a formal complaint. How this guy is in business is beyond me. Since when did they start allowing Doctors, to throw a complete temper tantrum in front of Patients and slam things when they get upset? He does not belong in the medical field at all." Ms. Beavers told WTVF she wrote the review after bringing her father in for an ap- pointment. She claimed Dr. Nandigam was angry and lashed out when he saw her recording the appointment on her cellphone. Ms. Beavers said she records ap- pointments to remember details and directions later, but deleted the recording at Dr. Nandigam's request, WTVF reported. After the news of the lawsuit broke, Dr. Nandigam's Yelp page attracted a handful of one-star reviews by people put off by the lawsuit. It had one five-star review from June 2019, as well as seven other five-star reviews that were flagged as "not recommended" by Yelp's recommendation software. The software flags reviews written by users without friends or a history of reviews on the site. Six of the seven reviews flagged by this software were posted after Ms. Beavers wrote her negative review and were written by users with little history on the site. Dr. Nandigam's star rating was 1.5 out of 5 stars as of Dec. 5, 2019. Nandigam Neurology declined to comment for this story. n