At the annual AMDA meeting in March at the Gaylord National Convention Center near Washington, DC, the House of Delegates hotly debated whether or not full membership status be offered to non-physician practitioners, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physician assistants, and other similarly situated LTC professionals.  Co-sponsored by the California, Missouri and Virginia state chapters of AMDA, and presented by CALTCM past president and AMDA Board of Directors member Karl Steinberg, MD, CMD, the resolution passed by a vote of 106-47.  

The AMDA Board of Directors will now determine the best approach to implementing the expanded membership benefit.  While there was a substantial minority who opposed the resolution, most delegates felt that this is a forward-thinking and appropriate step to take.  "NPPs play a vital role in caring for our LTC residents, and we need to recognize this on a national level.  AMDA will still offer the highest-quality education specific to medical direction in SNFs, but will continue to evolve and become inclusive to our clinician colleagues and perhaps eventually to the entire interdisciplinary team, as we have done in California since 2000," predicts Dr. Steinberg. The timeline for the full membership benefit has yet to be defined, but it should be in place by the time of the next annual meeting in March 2014 in Nashville.

In another controversial step, AMDA's House of Delegates also approved a task force to consider changing AMDA's name to better reflect what it is that AMDA members do, including the whole post-acute and long-term care spectrum.  It was felt that many people did not know exactly what AMDA's membership consisted of, and with the increasing interest in the SNF setting by hospitalists, physiatrists and other clinicians, there may be a more appropriate name for the organization.  

The California chapter social meeting occurred as usual on Friday night, and ex-Californians (also both past AMDA presidents) Drs. Jim Lett and Cheryl Phillips, stopped by to catch up.  Drs. Phillips and Lett will be presenting at the CALTCM meeting later this month, and Dr. Phillips will be receiving CALTCM's Leadership Award at the meeting.

Here is a photo from the AMDA California Chapter Reception: