Trauma-system bill clears state Senate committee

A bill eliminating the role of the Board of Health and an advisory council in allocating money for the state’s trauma system cleared a Senate committee Friday.

Senate Bill 612, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, would also reduce the Trauma Advisory Council from 20 to 12 members.

She said the bill was a response to a November report by Arkansas Legislative Audit finding the state Department of Health overpaid the Arkansas Trauma Education and Research Foundation by $ 655,886 under a contract between February 2012 and June 30, 2015.

“There was some gross negligence that occurred in the way the funds were handled,” Irvin said during a meeting of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.

The contract called for the foundation to hold training courses for hospitals, nurses and doctors.

The department paid the foundation for the estimated cost of educational conferences, but the foundation didn’t reimburse the department when the cost fell below the estimated cost, auditors found.

A 2009 law created the advisory council and put the Board of Health in charge of distributing about $19 million a year in tobacco taxes to support the state’s system of trauma care.

Robert Brech, the Health Department’s general counsel, said the advisory council submits a budget for the money to the Board of Health for approval.

The Board of Health is only responsible for allocating the money, Brech said. He said SB612 would transfer responsibility for the money to the Health Department.

In addition to the overpayments, the audit report found the Trauma Education and Research Foundation sold a piece of equipment for $45,000 it bought for $74,350 with money from the Health Department, even though the equipment should have been considered department property.

Foundation officials said the proceeds were used for new course development and supplies, auditors wrote.

Auditors also found Mike Sutherland, chairman of the foundation’s board, attended meetings, made motions and acted as a member of the Trauma Advisory Council and its finance subcommittee, although he wasn’t a member of either. The foundation paid Sutherland $50,375 for services reimbursed by the Health Department over four years, auditors found.

Council members Terry Collins and Ron Robertson received payments totaling $141,975 over four years for teaching and planning courses under the foundation contract, auditors found. Their posts are among those eliminated by SB612.

The Health Department didn’t renew its contract with the foundation last year, and it ceased operation.

Brech said the Arkansas Trauma Society is now providing similar courses.

SB612 would allow the Health Department to waive the trauma system’s educational requirements for hospitals until March 1, 2019.

“We don’t want any retaliation or any holding up hospitals” from meeting the requirements, Brech said.

The committee recommended approval of the bill in a 5-2 vote, with all the Republicans at the meeting voting in favor of the bill, and the Democrats voting against it.

Charles Mabry, a general surgeon and member of the advisory council, told legislators the system has cut the state’s death rate from trauma by more than half.

He also noted Health Department staff members attend advisory council meetings and hadn’t raised concerns about conflicts of interest in the past.

Todd Maxson, the trauma medical director at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, said allowing exemptions from the training requirement would be a “step back” for the trauma system.

“There will be lives that are lost,” he said.