Becker's has three anesthesiologists reported on in the last two weeks:
1. U.S. Anesthesia Partners Holdings and its Texas affiliate won a pretrial decision in a discrimination lawsuit filed by former employee Dr. David Axmann. Dr. Axmann, an anesthesiologist, joined USAPH and its Dallas-based unit, USAP-Texas, in 2017 after they acquired his previous employer. He claims that most anesthesiologists at the time of the acquisition were over 50, according to court documents.
Dr. Axmann alleges that USAP began staffing operating rooms with younger CRNAs under anesthesiologist supervision and started dismissing older employees.
In July 2020, USAP raised concerns about Dr. Axmann’s performance and required him to attend coaching sessions with a physician counselor selected by USAP to continue his employment. He refused unless the counselor was mutually agreed upon, citing age-based harassment and discrimination. Two months later, USAP terminated Dr. Axmann, who was over 40 at the time.
2, The University of Alabama at Birmingham's Heersink School of Medicine's department of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine tapped Ryan Densmore, MD, as its director of non-operating room anesthesia. Dr. Densmore currently serves as an assistant professor in both the division of multispecialty anesthesia and the division of cardiothoracic anesthesia at UAB.
3. Ronald Lewis, MD, a Louisiana-based anesthesiologist, died on Jan. 6 at 91. Dr. Lewis began his medical career as a professor at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine in the department of anesthesiology, began private practice in El Dorado, Ark., and served as head of the anesthesia department at Warner Brown Hospital.
In 1988, he moved to Lake Charles, La., where he began practice with Lake Charles Anesthesiology, specializing in open heart, major vascular, obstetrics epidural and regional blocks. In 2009, he started a private practice with Anesthesia Associates of Lake Charles until his retirement in 2014.