Policy Statements Passed by the Board at September 2002 Meeting

Role and Responsibilities of the Medical Director in the Nursing Home: In light of the evolution currently happening within long term care, AMDA recently convened an expert panel to review the 1991 policy statement on the role and responsibilities of the medical director. The resulting statement outlines the medical director's major responsibilities in the nursing home and is geared toward ensuring that appropriate care is provided to an increasingly complex, frail and medically challenging population.

Role of the Attending Physician in the Nursing Home: After deciding to strengthen the role of the medical director, AMDA also proceeded to clarify and re-affirm the principles outlined in the 1991 policy statement on the role of the attending physician. Various reports on the state of long term care, such as the Institute of Medicine's Improving the Quality of Long Term Care, further contributed to the move to re-examine the role of the attending physician. AMDA believes that attending physicians need clearly stated expectations regarding their responsibilities for patient care.

Pharmacy Physician Relations and Appropriate Prescribing for Long Term Care Patients: In this position statement, AMDA takes aim at inappropriate prescribing practices. Specifically, the practice of using patient-specific health information to recommend prescription changes when such recommendations are irrespective of a particular patient's condition and are not evidence-based.

Policy on Focus Groups Held During AMDA Meetings: This policy outlines the specific criteria for industry focus groups held during AMDA meeting functions. The focus groups must receive prior approval from AMDA conference planners, be held during non-competing meeting hours and determine fair market value compensation for participation.

The Policy Statements can be viewed online at www.amda.com/library/governance/resolutions/.

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