State Senate passes veterinarian technician specialists bill

LITTLE ROCK — After a long debate, the Arkansas Senate approved a bill Thursday to grant more authority to veterinarian technician specialists.

House Bill 1182 is aimed at relieving the state’s large animal veterinarian shortage by allowing veterinarians to delegate more responsibility to veterinarian technician specialists, a class of animal health care professionals some liken to nurse practitioners.

The bill allows veterinarian technician specialists to enter into a “collaborative practice agreement” with a veterinarian to help treat animals. The Senate voted 208 in favor of the bill and has moved it back to the House for further consideration.

Veterinarian technician specialists have a higher level of training than normal veterinarian technicians. There are no veterinarian technician specialists in the state, but two are studying at a program at Arkansas State University Beebe, according to Sen. Ricky Hill, R-Cabot, a co-sponsor of HB1182.

While the original bill would have allowed veterinarian technician specialists to prescribe drugs, the bill’s sponsor, DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio, removed it from the bill after pushback. Some veterinarians campaigned against the bill saying only the federal government, not the state, can grant the authority to prescribe drugs to veterinarian technician specialists.

“They should like this because it was watered down to meet their approval,” Hill said.

Hill said the bill would allow veterinarian technician specialists to establish a patient relationship, helping to relieve some of the pressure on veterinarians. The bill says a “veterinary technician specialist shall perform specialized veterinary technology under the direction, supervision, and responsibility” of a veterinarian.

The bill would limit the number of veterinary technician specialists who could enter into a “collaborative practice agreement” to three. The bill also would require the veterinarian to personally see the animal within 15 days after the technician specialist administers care.

Sen. Tyler Dees, R-Siloam Springs, took issue with the 15-day requirement, saying he was worried a veterinary technician specialist could misdiagnose an animal with a vet not following up immediately.

“I think about a risk from a food supply, food chain network,” Dees said.

Arkansas ranked last in the nation in veterinarians per capita, with 14 veterinarians per 100,000, according to a recent analysis by veterinarians.org. The state also has no veterinary schools, although that will change soon with Arkansas State University and Lyon College announcing plans to establish their own programs. Instead, Arkansas’ future veterinarians have had to venture out of state, usually to universities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee, for their formal education.

Many veterinarians forgo specializing in large animals in favor of working at clinics focusing on domestic pets, an issue for a state that relies heavily on its cattle industry, Hill said.

“There is a veterinarian shortage. We’re in a state of emergency in the state of Arkansas,” Hill said. “We are underserved in areas, especially in east Arkansas and south Arkansas and southwest Arkansas. Even in Central Arkansas, for large animal vets, we are underserved.”

Republican Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a farmer from Branch, said the veterinarian shortage was compounded by the fact that many animal medicine doctors are women, who he said are not physically able to perform certain surgeries on large animals.

“There is no way, and this is nothing against females, but I can assure you that when you cut into the side of a cow or a horse and you do a c-section, one woman cannot take that calf out of that uterus,” Stubblefield said.

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, pushed back on Stubblefield’s comments, saying her daughter is in veterinary school doing the procedures Stubblefield said women are unable to perform.

“Women can do those things, because I’ve seen her videos that she sends to me where she is doing those things with large animals and with cows,” Irvin said.