The Board of Health (Board) met at 7 p.m. today in emergency session and accepted the resignation of the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) Commissioner, Terry Cline, Ph.D., effective immediately. Dr. Cline has served as the OSDH Commissioner since June 2009. The Board appointed Director and Secretary of Finance, Preston Doerflinger, as Interim OSDH Commissioner. Director Doerflinger will assume his new responsibilities on October 31, 2017.
The resignation of Commissioner Cline came on the heels of information received by the Board that OSDH is faced with an immediate financial loss predicated upon multiple years of over-expenditures and fiscal mismanagement. In addition to Commissioner Cline, the Board acknowledges the resignation of Julie Cox-Kain, OSDH Senior Deputy Commissioner, effective immediately.
“The Board takes these matters very seriously and is prepared to take all steps necessary to ensure that OSDH continues its important work in the area of public health” said Board President Martha Burger.” Burger wants to assure the employees that the Board is committed to the critical work they perform for the citizens of Oklahoma.
OSDH is taking steps to address the problems head on and put OSDH back on sound financial footing. In addition to steps previously taken to address the shortfall, OSDH signed an engagement letter today for a special audit by the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s office to address the issues that have led to the current financial situation.

By John D. Doak, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner
Currently, more than 678,000 Oklahomans are enrolled in Medicare. Are all of those beneficiaries getting the proper coverage at the most affordable price based on their respective budgets? Unfortunately, the answer is likely no but there is a solution available during the Medicare Open Enrollment period.
The Medicare Open Enrollment period runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7. During this time, beneficiaries can review their current medical and prescription drug coverage, as well as explore new options available to them that could provide better coverage at a reduced cost.
Did you know that last year there were 20 different prescription drug plans available to Medicare beneficiaries ranging in price from $17 to $166 a month? Most people would likely pick the cheaper option to save money. However, sometimes the cheaper option isn’t always the best option. For example, what if a beneficiary were to enroll in the cheaper plan option only to find out that a particular medication he or she was prescribed isn’t covered under the cheaper plan? In that scenario, it would mean that the cheaper plan wouldn’t cover any of the costs for that drug, which would result in the beneficiary having to pay the full price for that medication. Ultimately, the beneficiary in that situation could actually wind up spending twice as much or more for his or her drug costs that year.
Here are some other considerations for Medicare beneficiaries to think about each year:
* Did your physician prescribe a new medication for you in the last year?
* If so, will your current prescription drug plan cover that new medication or is there another drug plan available that will cover it and could help save you money?
* Have you noticed that the monthly premium or co-pay amount for your current drug plan, which does cover all of your prescribed medications, has increased significantly?
With so many different Medicare plans available, each with different monthly costs, co-pays and drug lists, how do you make the best decision for yourself?
That’s where the Medicare Assistance Program (MAP) at the Oklahoma Insurance Department comes in. MAP is a grant-funded program that offers free, unbiased counseling to Medicare beneficiaries concerning their different options for Medicare coverage. MAP counselors are available to meet with seniors in-person or on the phone to answer questions about original Medicare, Medicare supplement insurance, Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare prescription drug plans. Within that, MAP counselors can help Oklahoma seniors evaluate their current coverage and explore the options available to them for the coming year.
Last year, MAP counselors helped Oklahoma seniors save, on average, an estimated $2,100 per person. In addition, MAP can help Oklahoma seniors living on fixed incomes in applying for financial assistance to cover their medical and/or prescription drug costs.
There are trained counselors across Oklahoma available to assist and provide a more personal approach to Medicare coverage counseling. Please call 800-763-2828 to find a counselor near you.

The world is running out of antibiotics.
In a new report from the World Health Organization, research showed that too few new antibiotics are being developed to counter the growing threat of infections that are resistant to currently available antibiotics.
“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest and fastest-growing health crises facing our planet,” said Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation immunologist Hal Scofield, M.D. The CDC estimates that 23,000 Americans die each year from infections that don’t respond to standard treatment with antibiotics. And this number is only going up.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when a bacteria, fungi, or parasite is no longer curable by medicines previously able to treat them. For example, if you give a patient antibiotics and it kills 99.9 percent of the bugs that are causing the disease, the 0.01 percent that survive can become superbugs that are resistant to the medication.
“This happens routinely, and we know it’s going to continue until protocols are established in medicine to minimize it,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott, M.D., a physician and medical researcher. “Unfortunately there are a lot of forces working in the other direction.”
The primary cause for the surge in superbugs is excessive use of antibiotics. According to the CDC, healthcare providers write 47 million unneeded antibiotic prescriptions each year in the U.S. alone. “It’s routine for antibiotics to be prescribed for conditions that they can’t treat, things like sore throats, colds and other viral infections,” said Prescott.
Scofield emphasized that patients also bear some responsibility. “People often demand antibiotics from their healthcare providers in situations where they won’t help,” he said. “And for a variety of reasons—including the desire to please patients and to receive high customer-satisfaction ratings—the providers often reluctantly accept.”
Finding ways to administer antibiotics only when needed is important, said Prescott. But so is proper usage by patients once the drugs are prescribed. “This means never skipping doses or stopping treatment early, even if you feel better,” Prescott said.
He added that the use of antibiotics in animals like chickens, cattle and pigs may also be a culprit. “The drugs speed the animals’ growth and how much meat they have on them, but they are also very likely contributing in a significant way to the rapid rise of superbugs,” he said.
The new WHO report states that 51 antibiotics and 11 natural medical products are in development, but the fear is that it won’t be nearly enough, because many won’t make it all the way through trials to enter the market. The WHO also warns that many are only short-term solutions, as well, because most are just modifications of existing treatments.
“People in Oklahoma need to realize this isn’t a rare thing that only happens in third-world countries. It’s occurring all over,” Prescott said. “It’s a real problem and it’s not one that will be easily solved. There are big, wholesale structural changes that need to happen.”

On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, Oklahoma City’s Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble will present its second concert of the 2017-18 season, “Masterworks for Three,” featuring chamber works by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century composers, all of whom wrote extensively in the genre. The Ensemble will present trios by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Brahms. The Mendelssohn trio is one of his most popular chamber works and is recognized as one of his greatest. The sweetly-melancholic Brahms trio commemorates the death of his mother earlier that year and was the last chamber work he would write for the next eight years. All three compositions on the program of this Jeannette Sias Memorial Concert are masterworks by three of classical music’s greatest masters. The works on the program are: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Trio in G Major, K. 564 (for violin, cello and piano) Felix Mendelssohn, Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, op. 49 (for violin cello and piano) Johannes Brahms, Horn Trio in E-flat Major, op. 40 (for horn, violin and piano).
Brightmusic musicians performing are: Gregory Lee (violin), Meredith Blecha-Wells (cello), Kate Pritchett (horn) and Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano)
The performance will take place at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 7 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 127 NW 7th Street (at Robinson). Individual concert admission is $20 per ticket. Children, students and active-duty military personnel are admitted free with ID. More information about this concert is available on Brightmusic’s website at http://www.brightmusic.org.

Renovation work to Mercy’s emergency department waiting area will begin Monday, Oct. 23.
During renovation, the existing emergency department patient drop-off entrance will be closed and the waiting area space will be reduced. Patients and family members are encouraged to use the co-worker entrance just a few feet east of the existing emergency department entrance.
Mercy will provide complimentary valet parking for emergency department patients in front of the existing co-worker entrance and additional directional signage will be installed to assist with wayfinding. Emergency department staff as well as security will help patients and families locate entrances and registration.
“Patients who come to our emergency department often have a heightened sense of anxiety and fear,” said John Lampert, Mercy vice president of operations. “In order to help create a sense of comfort, we are installing new flooring, paint and furniture, plus elements of nature and expressions of Mercy’s faith throughout the space.”
Renovations are expected to be complete in early December.
Mercy, named one of the top five large U.S. health systems in 2017 by Truven, an IBM Watson Health company, serves millions annually. Mercy includes 44 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, more than 700 physician practices and outpatient facilities, 40,000 co-workers and more than 2,000 Mercy Clinic physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

The Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star presented the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation with a check totaling $10,175 at its annual conference on Sunday.
The donation will fund OMRF research on cancer and other diseases, such as lupus, heart disease and multiple sclerosis. With this donation, the Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star has now donated a total of $331,058 to OMRF research since 2002, when it selected OMRF as its charitable beneficiary.
The donation was presented at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple in Guthrie.
Eastern Star members support OMRF through individual donations made at chapter meetings statewide, including marches and various donations made in memory of loved ones. Overall, 47 additional chapters have also made individual gifts to the foundation.
OMRF Vice President of Development Penny Voss described the Oklahoma Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star as the definition of philanthropy.
“The long-time support from the members of the Oklahoma Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star has a huge impact on OMRF,” she said. “Each year their gifts go directly to our scientists to help in their quest for new treatments and cures for diseases that affect all of us. We are truly grateful to every member for their belief in our mission to help people live longer and healthier lives.”
The Order of the Eastern Star is the largest fraternal organization in the world to which both men and women may belong. It counts approximately one million members across the globe and is dedicated to furthering charity, education, fraternity and science.
It has approximately 8,000 members and more than 90 chapters in Oklahoma, including groups in Bartlesville, Blanchard, Broken Arrow, Clinton, Enid, Guthrie, Hennessey, Lawton, McAlester, Muskogee and Woodward.