At its July 16 meeting the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure received an executive director report covering May and June licensure activity, complaint statistics, staff certifications and open positions following a retirement.

The board’s staff reported issuing 212 licenses via traditional methods during the reporting period, including three podiatry licenses and 23 physician assistant licenses; an additional 211 licenses were issued through the interstate compact process along with seven new letters of qualification, and staff issued 393 certifications. In the investigations unit the board received 106 complaints, closed 29 cases, opened 12 new cases and reported a total of 47 open cases. The percentage of complaints closed within seven days fell to 50% from a prior 68%; staff attributed the decline to seasonal staffing and vacation patterns.

Staff announced that Deputy Director Mike Lucius retired effective June 30, leaving three open positions the board is recruiting for: the deputy director, a second attorney approved by the legislature to assist existing legal staff, and a communications officer to support outreach and public education about the board’s work. Staff said applications were being reviewed.

The report also summarized renewal-season performance: the MD category started with slightly more than 10,000 licensees and recorded a 93.7% renewal rate through the traditional process, leaving 9,664 active renewals at the time of the report. Staff noted a larger percentage of non-renewal among compact licensees (about 15% not renewing) than among traditional licensees — a pattern staff said is being seen nationwide.

Why it matters: The staffing gaps and recruitment for a communications officer and additional legal staff could affect the board’s capacity to process complaints and public outreach. The lower seven-day closure rate and the compact-renewal disparity were discussed as operational challenges.

Board discussion: A board member asked why compact-license renewals were lagging; staff suggested two possibilities: use by locum tenens physicians who obtained multiple compact credentials and later did not renew, and retirements among compact licensees. The board asked members to follow up on outreach targets for board appointments.

What the board did not decide: The meeting recorded information and tasked staff with recruitment; no hiring votes were recorded at the public meeting.