LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Awards

2023 LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD

Mike Farley Honored With Lifetime Achievement Award!


Mike Farley was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the IPAS 2023 Fall Conference in recognition of his many years of service to Iowa PAs and to IPAS. He has been a constant source of support on PA initiatives, he could always be relied on to come through with a prompt and persuasive approach for rational PA policy especially on short notice.


During the 2023 legislative campaign to increase access to care by allowing PAs to practice autonomously, he persuaded the physician legislator on the House committee that had the PA bill (HF 424) to support it. He testified effectively at subcommittee hearings in both the House and the Senate, on the PA bill where it passed in each subcommittee with a unanimous vote. In fact when he learned that one wheelchair bound subcommittee member was thinking about voting against the bill. Mike met with him, established rapport, noting that he served as a clinical coordinator of the VA hospital spinal injury clinic. Subsequently the legislator voted for the bill in the subcommittee and in the committee and in the full House. When Mike learned that his own Senator had voted against the bill in committee, Mike provided him with correct information about the bill. And his senator voted for the bill on final passage.


Mike attended multiple legislative forums, crucially persuaded many PAs to contact their legislators, and wrote many letters to legislators about the PA bill. Without Mike’s timely and effective efforts, HF 424 might never have passed. Mike may be a retired PA but he never retired from his efforts to get better care to more people by allowing PAs to use their skills.


As Mike noted, HF424 is a great victory for patients and the PA profession. “I believe PAs practicing without needless regulations means that more people will have ready access to the high-quality care we provide. That’s huge.”


Mike Farley was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the IPAS 2023 Fall Conference in recognition of his many years of service to Iowa PAs and to IPAS. He has been a constant source of support on PA initiatives, he could always be relied on to come through with a prompt and persuasive approach for rational PA policy especially on short notice.


During the 2023 legislative campaign to increase access to care by allowing PAs to practice autonomously, he persuaded the physician legislator on the House committee that had the PA bill (HF 424) to support it. He testified effectively at subcommittee hearings in both the House and the Senate, on the PA bill where it passed in each subcommittee with a unanimous vote. In fact when he learned that one wheelchair-bound subcommittee member was thinking about voting against the bill. Mike met with him, and established rapport, noting that he served as a clinical coordinator of the VA hospital spinal injury clinic. Subsequently, the legislator voted for the bill in the subcommittee and in the committee and in the full House. When Mike learned that his own Senator had voted against the bill in committee, Mike provided him with correct information about the bill. And his senator voted for the bill on final passage.


Mike attended multiple legislative forums, crucially persuaded many PAs to contact their legislators, and wrote many letters to legislators about the PA bill. Without Mike’s timely and effective efforts, HF 424 might never have passed. 


Mike may be a retired PA but he never retired from his efforts to get better care to more people by allowing PAs to use their skills.


As Mike noted, HF424 is a great victory for patients and the PA profession. “I believe PAs practicing without needless regulations means that more people will have ready access to the high-quality care we provide. That’s huge.”


2014 LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD

The Iowa Physician Assistant Society (IPAS) is proud to announce the first recipient of the IPAS Lifetime Achievement Award. This special award is given to an individual selected by the IPAS Awards Committee and recognizes outstanding support of accessible, quality medical care and the highest level of impact to the Physician Assistant profession.


On October 7th at the Annual IPAS Business Meeting, IPAS honored James (Jim) Blouse, PA.


Jim was nominated for his outstanding leadership, as he was one of the founding members of IPAS in 1974, and has tirelessly worked towards increasing access to care over the course of his career.


PA Jim Blouse has provided medical care for the people in the small eastern Iowa town of Wilton (population 2800) for the past 36 years. After graduating from the Duke University PA Program in 1973, Jim practiced in Muscatine until 1979 when he began practicing as the sole full time medical care provider in Wilton. In 1980, he was joined by a full time physician.


In 1974 Jim and several PAs founded the Iowa PA Society. At that time there were 15 PAs in Iowa. While the statute recognizing PAs passed in 1971, Iowa PA practice rules were not enacted until 1974.


Jim was a key player in helping to make Iowa a state that allows PAs to use their skills to provide better care for their patients. When remote site PAs were leaving Iowa due to an unfriendly regulatory environment Jim pitched in by arranging a meeting with his state senator Dick Drake in 1988, gaining the key legislator’s crucial support for establishing an independent Iowa PA Regulatory Board with PAs on it. Due to his outstanding PA skills Jim’s reputation in the community continued to grow. In 1991 when Iowa PAs gained prescribing privileges Jim secured his state legislators’ support for that successful effort. His legislators said, “If Jim is ok with it, so am I.”


Upon his retirement in March of this year after 41 years of practice in Iowa, Jim was honored by the people of Wilton with an outstanding rural medical care award presented by State Representative Bobby Kaufmann, Jeff Kaufmann’s son. And Wilton is now has the services of another PA in Jim’s former position, Jason Thornburg.


Jim was always there for his patients and for his profession whenever he was asked to help. His pioneer work included educating legislators about the PA role in bringing medical care to Iowans. Thereby, he made Iowa a better place for PAs to practice. Most importantly, Jim made quality medical care more accessible to patients in Wilton and across the state.

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