Thanks to all of our supporters for helping improve patient health and safety, and for acting as invaluable resources — whether that be funding, acting as a scientific or media resource, assisting us with surveys, or just moral support. Please note that the titles and organizations with whom our individual supporters are affiliated, have been identified for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an endorsement of or support by such organization to PPAHS or the viewpoints communicated by the individual supporter.
Christina Bacak (Executive Director, Texas Society of Anesthesiologists)
Laura Bassi, CRNA, MSNA (President, Rhode Island Association of Nurse Anesthetists)
Dr Wei Chao (Secretary, Hawaii State Society of Anesthesiologists)
Dr Richard Dutton (Executive Director, Anesthesia Quality Institute)
Dr Lisa Eng (President, Association of Chinese American Physicians)
Dr Pamela Flood (Director of Obstetrical Anesthesia, UCSF School of Medicine)
Dr Elizabeth Frost (Prof Anesthesiology, Mount Sinai Medical Center)
Deirdre Gilbert (National Director, The National Association for Medical Malpractice Victims, Inc.)
Dr Peter Glass (Professor and Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Stony Brook)
Mark Green, CRNA (President, Vermont Association of Nurse Anesthetists)
Cheryl Handy (patient safety advocate)
Cathy Harrison, CRNA (President, Virginia Association of Nurse Anesthetists)
Sean Hintz, CRNA (Vice President, Louisiana Association of Nurse Anesthetists)
Dr Robert Johnstone (Secretary, West Virginia State Society of Anesthesiologists)
Dr Eberhard Kochs (Chair, Department of Anesthesia, Technische Universität München)
Dr Jerrold Lerman (Department of Anesthesiology, Children’s Hospital of Buffalo)
Dr J. Lance Lichtor (Chief, Pediatric Anesthesiology, UMass Memorial Medical Center; Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Medical School; web editor and an associate editor for Anesthesiology, and Anesthesia and Analgesia)
Dr Ren Yu Liu, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Kathleen O’Leary (President, The New York State Society of Anesthesiologists; Chief of Surgical Anesthesia, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute)
Dr Frank J. Overdyk (Executive Director for Research, North American Partners in Anesthesiology, and Professor of Anesthesiology at Hofstra University School of Medicine)
Margarita Pate (Executive Director, South Carolina Society of Anesthesiologists)
Dr Michael Roizen (Institute Chair, Wellness Institute, Cleveland Clinic)
Dr Daniel I. Sessler (Michael Cudahy Professor & Chair, Department of Outcomes Research, The Cleveland Clinic; Director, Outcomes Research Consortium)
Howard Snitzer (The Man Who Survived 96 Minutes Without A Heartbeat)
Heather Spiess (Executive Director, American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants)
Dr Robert Stoelting (President, Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation)
Lisa Sullivan, CRNA (President, New Hampshire Association of Nurse Anesthetists)
Dr Thomas Vetter (Maurice S. Albin Professor of Anesthesiology, Vice Chair and Director of the Division of Pain Medicine, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Alabama School of Medicine)
Dr Brett Winthrop (President, Nevada State Society of Anesthesiologists)
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Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety 
WOW! I cannot beevlie some of the comments I am reading! As a nurse anesthetist in a state which has been opted out for many years, I can confidently state that a large part of our state would go without anesthesia care if it were not for CRNAs willing to work in these rural, underserved areas. And although they may not be doing anesthesia for open hearts and craniotomies every day, they certainly shoulder the liability for the care they provide alone, often without any backup for a difficult airway or a hemorrhaging trauma that may roll through the door. CRNAs ARE looked to as the expert in these situations, where they are expected to keep the patient alive with all available rescusitative means while the surgeon focuses on surgery. These CRNAs have every bit the same responsibility in selecting safe anesthestic techniques, communicating and collaborating with the surgeon, and in leading the rescucitative efforts. In these underserved rural areas, not all patients are stable enough to ship out and in these cases, it is teamwork between the anesthesia provider and the surgeon (as well as the entire OR staff) that saves patients’ lives.to MD your comments regarding surgeons’ intolerance of communicating with CRNAs speaks volumes to the attitude so prevalent amongst your colleagues which is so detrimental to safe patient care. first, communication between ALL team members is essential to quality outcomes and medical error prevention! (this is a JCAHO initiative). your ego and attitude of superiority and elitism is the very root of a host of problems in medicine! it makes you appear inapproachable to patients, as well as your coworkers, and literally a pain in the ass to work with for surgeons and your entire OR team. as someone who works in both MDA-CRNA care team and CRNA-only practice environments, I can say that I have ALWAYS communicated with my surgeon (regardless of the practice environment) and have found them very open and appreciative to it. in fact, i am quite certain that they respect my practice and appreciate my competency more because of it. open communication is best, not only for patient outcomes, but also for a cohesive work environment. We are all human (MDs not excluded) and communication ensures that the very best decisions are made for the patient and that nothing is overlooked. The attitude you present is the very reason many surgeons prefer to work with CRNAs nobody needs two egos in the same room.And this misperception that CRNAs only do minor cases is SO misinformed. In my career (even while a student), I have done hundreds of heart, liver, and lung transplants, cardiac and neuro surgeries, you name it. Sure they were under an anesthesiologist’s supervision , but most often, they were rarely around. Occasionally on a light sports night, they might come in and help you get a CABG or cardiac transplant off-pump. Obviously, most CRNAs who practice solo are not doing huge, high-acuity cases on a regular basis, but let’s not forget the thousands of CRNAs in this country who do big cases on very sick patients everyday, providing care and making critical autonomous clinical decisions while their physican colleagues take all the credit. Our competent care is, in many cases, what makes your practice lifestyles possible.Lastly, I wonder if the American public was aware that in many care team environments, MDA’s only showed up to sign the paperwork, that they were absent for the majority of surgical cases to hang out in the break room, watching sports or surfing the net, all the while charging for four cases (in which the CRNAs were doing all the work), would they would be so trusting of physician care and so willing to pay those $600,000/year salaries???so let’s just be honest the practice of anesthesia started as and is mostly the practice of advanced nursing. CRNAs are not the new kid on the block. We have been delivering excellent anesthesia care since the 1800 s. let’s face it: MDA’s are too highly trained and think too highly of themselves to sit on a stool and deliver anesthesia. it is a job full of nursing tasks! so do what you’re good at and go practice medicine. you chose anesthesia because it is the only profession where you can have someone else do your work for you and still bill the big dollars. EVERYONE in health care knows that most anesthesiologists make up to twice as much as their surgeon colleagues!!! Maybe its time the public was aware of that as well.
I fail to see a flaw in utilizing Medicare clmias as a basis for identifying complications. When a complication occurs hospitals/ASCs use modifiers reflected in clmias to indicate whether or not it is anesthesia related. In fact the American Society of Anesthesiologists has utilized this very same method to tout a study they performed 10years ago. The use of Medicare patients or patients 65yr old and older is typically the population with the most co-morbidities and therefore a very useful indicator of the quality of anesthesia services. The Lewin Group review clmias data from the Ingenix data base with the same results and I’ll point out that this data is NOT limited to patients 65 or older.Multiple admission would affect both groups equally. The inference by Scott that this would somehow prove CRNAs practicing solo would rate less safe than the MDAs in this regard is unproven nor documented anywhere in the literature. Given the enmity between Anesthesiologists and CRNAs in Texas, were there any proof in this regard the anesthesiologists would have used it.What is clear from both of these studies is that anesthesia services are very safe and the quality of services is excellent that is approaching Six Sigma. In Texas, CRNAs provide outstanding services to the major part of rural community as SOLO providers. CRNAs are at the bedside IN the operating room WITH the patient in over 80% of Texas Hospitals, conservatively.Bottom line, if an Anesthesiologists education costs the US Healthcare system 6x (~700k) the cost of educating a CRNA (~150k) surely this should be reflected in the quality and safety measures by a measure of 6x- but it’s not there. The healthcare system and hospitals are desperate for cost savings, while maintaining quality, this looks like a good place to start.