Students to give physicals at mental center

Beth Slovic

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

Third-year medical residents from the family practice program of the University of Nevada School of Medicine may soon be licensed to perform routine physicals at Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, 6161 W. Charleston Blvd.

Typically, medical residents are not permitted to practice outside of the designated programs for which they annually receive licenses.

However, Dr. David Rosin, the statewide medical director of the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services, who overseas operations at the health center, has asked the state Board of Medical Examiners, the agency that regulates doctors and doctors assistants, to consider granting limited licenses to medical residents. Doing so, he wrote in a letter to the board, would help relieve the one physician who currently performs the physicals at the center.

Though such licenses are rarely requested, according to the administrator who processes licenses at the board, Drenna Clark, the board's executive secretary, said the group would likely approve the request.

"The department that is running this center doesn't have enough doctors on staff to do physicals on everyone who is admitted," Clark said.

The mental health facility, which provides services to poor and uninsured psychiatric patients, wants to perform physicals on all of its patients within 24 hours of their arrival so the center can maintain its accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a voluntary certification agency.

The center and medical residents would benefit from the proposed scenario, Clark said. The center would have additional staff members on hand to screen patients, and residents would gain valuable experience under the supervision of the one full-time staff member.

The president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Southern Nevada, a nonprofit advocacy organization, agreed.

"I think that would great," said Claire Boutin, the president or the organization, referring to the proposal. "It would be good to help the staff. It would be good for the patients and the residents."

Rosin did not return calls to indicate how many residents would be under the supervision of the one doctor at the center.