Report of Regents Professional Practice Committee to The Board of Regents

Your Professional Practice Committee held its scheduled meeting on June 7, 2021. All Committee members participated in the meeting by video conference call. Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr., attended the meeting, but did not vote on any case or action.

ACTION ITEMS

Professional Discipline Cases

Your Committee recommends that the reports of the Regents Review Committees, including rulings, findings of fact, determinations as to guilt, and recommendations, by unanimous or majority vote, contained in those reports which have been distributed to you, be accepted in 3 cases.  In addition, your Committee recommends, upon the recommendation of the Committee on the Professions, that 46 consent order applications and 2 surrender applications be granted.

In the case of Ashley Marie McIlhenny a/k/a Ashley Marie Lotz, Registered Professional Nurse, Calendar No. 30933, we recommend that the following supplemental documents received by petitioner subsequent to the hearing before the Regents Review Committee on October 2, 2020 be deemed received into the record as accepted additional evidence concerning the issue of notice to respondent: (1) petitioner’s letter dated October 23, 2020; (2) the address information request petitioner sent to the United States Post Office regarding respondent’s address in Coxsackie, New York and stamped by the Post Office on October 1, 2020; and (3) the envelope stamped as received by petitioner on October 5, 2020 in which the Post Office sent petitioner the response to petitioner’s address information request; and said additional documents be received into the record herein, notwithstanding that the hearing transcript does not reflect any request by petitioner in this matter to keep the hearing record open for the receipt of the response from the United States Post Office to petitioner’s address information request in which the Post Office indicated that respondent left no forwarding address for mail sent to her address in Coxsackie, New York.

These recommendations are made following the review of 51 cases involving eight registered professional nurses, seven licensed practical nurses, six licensed practical nurses who are also registered professional nurses, three veterinarians, two registered professional nurses who are also nurse practitioners (Psychiatry), one certified dietitian-nutritionist, one certified public accountant, one chiropractor, one dentist, one licensed practical nurse who is also a registered professional nurse and who is also a nurse practitioner (Psychiatry), one nurse practitioner (Pediatrics), one pharmacist, one professional engineer, one registered professional nurse who is also a nurse practitioner (Acute Care), one registered professional nurse who is also a nurse practitioner (Adult Health), one registered professional nurse who is also a nurse practitioner (Family Health), and one respiratory therapy technician.

Long-Term Clinical Clerkships [PPC EXS (A) 4]

Your Committee recommends the following: That the applications for Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, St. George’s University School of Medicine, and Technion Israel Institute of Technology - Technion American Medical Students Program to place students in long-term clinical clerkships in New York be approved, in accordance with and subject to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Long-term Clinical Clerkships

MOTION FOR ACTION BY FULL BOARD

Chancellor and Colleagues: Your Professional Practice Committee recommends, and we move, that the Board of Regents act affirmatively upon each recommendation in the written report of the Committee's deliberations at its meeting on June 7, 2021, copies of which have been distributed to each Regent.

MATTERS NOT REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

Your Committee discussed several topics of interest, including:

Deputy Commissioner's Report/Update 

• Full Board Consent Agenda Items
  • Board (Re)Appointments
  • Licensing Petitions/Conferral of Degrees
  • Proposed Addition of Section 52.49 to and Amendment of Sections 68.4 and 68.6 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Licensure Requirements for Land Surveyors (2nd Emergency Action)
  • Renewal of Permission to Operate in New York State:
    • Fairleigh Dickson University
    • Frontier Nursing University
    • University of Connecticut
    • University of Pennsylvania

Proposed Addition of Subdivision (j) to Section 29.10 of the Rules of the Board of Regents and Amendment of Section 70.10 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Mandatory Peer Review Program in the Profession of Public Accountancy (Discussion)

The proposed amendments are necessary to conform to the Commissioner’s Regulations and the Regents Rules to the national peer review program standards and enhance the enforcement efforts to help ensure the quality of attest services provided by New York public accounting firms. The proposed amendments are designed, in part, to provide the Department with flexibility in implementing and adapting to changes in national standards relating to the peer review program. They also define the standards that relate to unprofessional conduct with respect to the mandatory peer review program, which this will improve the Board of Regents’ and the Department’s ability to enforce these standards. The proposed amendment to the Regents Rules, among other things, indicates that noncooperation with, or termination/expulsion from, the peer review program in accordance with the standards constitutes unprofessional conduct irrespective of whether such conduct was willful or grossly negligent.