Moving to what brought me here and why
I am standing today as your next GLMS Pres-
ident: My gateway into becoming involved in
organized medicine goes back roughly eight
years. In 2011, our state legislature passed what
I refer to as the infamous Optometric Laser
Bill. It was at a time that I did not see the value
of becoming involved in organized medicine,
in being involved in legislative activities and
in meeting with my legislators. When I found
out how the bill had been passed and how the
optometrists had given legislators $400,000 to
the ophthalmologists’ $30,000 and how the bill
had gone from being introduced in committee
to the governor’s desk for signature in 16 days, I
got angry. I was angry at the process. I was angry
at how our lobbyists had missed what was going
on. I was angry about many issues involved with
the passage of the bill. Most of all, I was angry
at myself for I had been uninvolved. I realized
that by inaction, we had allowed passage of the
bill. I didn’t even know who my legislators were
at the time. It was pretty sad that I couldn’t get on the phone to call
my legislators before looking up who they were on the LRC website.
At that point, I got over being angry and I got involved. I wrote a
letter to the editor of the Courier Journal to explain how this would
harm patients in our state. At the time, we were only the second
state in the US to allow optometrists to perform laser surgery on the
eye. Now, sadly, three more states have passed legislation to allow
optometrists to perform laser eye surgery, using Kentucky’s law as
a blue print for passing bills in their states. (See map of U.S. 2019
surgery battles) From this map, you can see how multiple states
have now either passed laws to allow optometrists to perform laser
eye surgery or have bills pending that will allow the practice. If
you will indulge me, I have a short video that I would like to show
about a patient who has been severely impacted by a Louisiana
optometrist performing laser eye surgery - Louisiana was the next
state after Kentucky to allow this practice. (Video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/IbDGaSdSk4I). We are now hearing of additional
cases where patients are being harmed by optometrists performing
lasers on the eye or using scalpels around the eye without having
been intensively trained to perform these procedures. This video
is a powerful message that should speak to everyone involved in
patient care. This applies not only to optometry but to multiple
other non-physician professionals who are being given the right to
perform procedures without the needed training of medical school
and residency. I now regularly go to both Frankfort and D.C. to
lobby on behalf of patients and physicians to protect patients’ safety.
This is why I am standing here today. I could not stand by and
watch laws being passed that affected patients without having a say
in the matter. I now know many of the legislators on a personal
basis. We have held fundraisers for them. I have many of their cell
phone numbers and can text or call them on a moment’s notice if
there is a bill that we want addressed.
in your practice. For me, it was the allowance of untrained indi-
viduals to provide eye care to patients without the consideration
of potential harm. For you, it might be some other aspect of your
specialty that you see might place your patients at risk. I would
like for everyone in this room to realize that you can all develop
a relationship with your legislator and also other legislators not
in your district. It requires your time, your energy, and yes, your
money. The way I have developed these relationships is by taking
the time to go to Frankfort and D.C., to go to fundraisers, to coffee
shops, delivering PAC checks, delivering personal checks, having
legislators accompany me to the OR as part of the Wear the White
Coat Program, which is one of the best programs our Society has
ever created. When I have a legislator with me in the laser suite at
our surgery center, I point out to them that this procedure is what
the legislature approved optometrists to perform. I also mention
that, even though it takes me less than a minute to perform the
procedure, I have personally performed thousands of them and was
trained by attending physicians to perform these procedures safely
and properly while I was in my residency at University of Louisville.
All of these things are important and necessitate the involvement
of this medical community. If you feel strongly about protecting
your patients from harm, you must advocate for them. You must put
yourself out there. It is not too late. In the words of Martin Luther
King, Jr., “This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time
for vigorous and positive action.” It is the only way we can change
how we deliver quality medicine to our patients going forward. I
challenge you to join me in the fight to put patient safety first.
Thank you and respectfully, Dr. Frank R. Burns.
Dr. Burns is a private practice ophthalmologist. His practice, Middletown Eye Care,
is located in Middletown, KY.
I am certain that each of you have felt similarly at some point
JUNE 2019
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