The KVMA office needs your help on the following state legislative development. Please familiarize yourself with the issue and communicate your comments and recommendations to the KVMA office immediately. S.B. 302, passed during the 2007 Kansas legislative session, established a controlled substances monitoring task force. The task force met throughout the fall and Dr. Don Hrenchir and Gary Reser attended them and represented the KVMA.

The purpose of the task force, as outlined in S.B. 302, is to develop (1) a controlled substances prescription monitoring program, and (2) an electronic purchase log capable of providing a real time compliance check with all laws concerning the sale of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

On Wednesday, Nov. 28, the task force looked at the first draft of a bill addressing the controlled substances monitoring program assignment reflected in S.B. 302.

Click here to review bill draft. Please review this draft thoroughly and make your comments available immediately to the KVMA. This is urgent.

The bill draft includes veterinarians under the definition of "dispenser" and requires them to electronically submit information to the Board of Pharmacy on schedule II through V drugs.

The information shall include, but not be limited to, such things as date of the prescription and the NCD code for the drug to the patient's name, address, date of birth, and the source of payment.

The bill draft also requires the information be submitted to the Board of Pharmacy every 15 days and may not allow the Board of Pharmacy to grant waivers for the electronic submission.

Gary Reser outlined a number of reasons why veterinarians should not be a part of the controlled substances monitoring program at the task force meeting on Nov. 28 and specifically requested that veterinarians be excluded. That has not happened to this point.

A meeting of the task force on Monday, Dec. 10 was canceled due to inclement weather. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, Dec. 18.

There will be another task force bill at some point dealing with the real time compliance check on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

In the mean time, contact the KVMA office with your thoughts and ideas on this bill draft and the Association will continue to keep you posted.

Click here to view a letter the KVMA sent to the task force on Friday, Dec. 10.

KVMA Members Assist With Student Selection

A total of 12 KVMA members will participate in the student selection process for the KSU College of Veterinary Medicine in December and January at the College.

The veterinarians will take part in an orientation session on Friday afternoon, Dec. 7 and then divide up responsibilities for the actual interview process on Dec. 15-16, Jan. 5-6, and Jan. 19-20.

Kansas residents will be interviewed on Dec. 15-16 and non residents on Jan. 5-6 and Jan. 19-20.

The KVMA sincerely thanks the following veterinarians for taking on this important assignment and providing such a valuable service in insuring the quality of the next generation of veterinarians in Kansas and around the country:

Dr. Garry Cowan
Dr. Leon Conner
Dr. Randy Norton
Dr. Judy Norton
Dr. Cindy Payne-Robertson
Dr. Shelley Oelkers
Dr. Shera Chaloupka
Dr. Richard Knewtson
Dr, Eva Dudek
Dr. Candy Layton
Dr. Rick Tanner
Dr. Heidi Bradford

Please contact the KVMA office if you would be willing to be part of the student selection next time around.