Re: certified or licensed

Re: certified or licensed

3/9/2004

Dear Glen,

I believe that all physicians must be liscensed to practice medicine in the
US. Almost all of them are board certified in their specialty once they
complete their residencies. Further, most boards are demanding
recertification after 7-10 years. I would not allow my family members to see
a physician that was not either completing a residency or certified.

All that said, I agree that state liscensure is critical to
professionalizing the practice of orthotics and prosthetics. This will
serve the immediate and long-term good for both the practitioners and those
they serve.

Respectfully,

Charles E. Levy, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: Glen Waldner Co [mailto:<Email Address Redacted>]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 8:53 PM
To: <Email Address Redacted>
Subject: [OANDP-L] certified or licensed


In regards to the debate of ABC and BOC, both are certification boards. In
states with licensure, certification is not relevant to the ability to
practice.

As an example, is the physician that you take your family to licensed or
certified to practice medicine? I would dare to say that the majority are
only
licensed. Only those in very specialized fields are certified, and they
became
certified AFTER they were licensed not before. The same is true of
therapists, nurses and everyone else in the medical field.

Why then do we in the field of orthotics and prosthetics deem it so vital to
become certified especially when we do not have specialty fields to be
certified in?

With all of that said, I believe the underlying tide of both certifying
boards is to PREVENT state licensure. After all, with state licensure ABC
and BOC
are back to being an insignificant club. I would like to know from
practioners
in states that have licensure, to what extent did ABC or BOC actually help
to
get state licensure passed. Did they actually help with the process or did
they just give arms length advice.

It is time for practioners in states without licensure to get up and do
something about it. If O&P practitioners don't do something to police
themselves
and get licensed in every state someone will do it for them.

Most of the complaints I have heard are to keep physical therapists from
practicing O&P. Being married to a PT, having an O.T. assistant as a
sister-in-law, and another sister-in-law as a respiratory therapist, I can
tell you most
of them don't want our jobs. They became therapist because that is what
they
like to do for their vocation. If they had wanted to be orthotists or
prosthetists they would have followed that path. The problem is there is a
whole
scope of practice out there called orthotics and prosthetics that is
unclaimed.
If the people working and trained in the field don't claim this scope of
practice, someone else will.

By the way, to become licensed in the state of Florida you do not have to
reside here. However you must still have the education, training,
residency,
etc. that ABC purports to should be the standard to become licensed. Just
follow the link below to find out how. (by the way, it costs more than $75
and one
form)
<URL Redacted>

Glen Waldner, LPO