Here are five anesthesiologists or anesthesia-related stories that have made headlines since Jan. 24:
1. Lubbock, Texas-based anesthesiologist Jeffrey Norman Colvin, MD, has been accused of violating a medical license restriction more than 60 times in two months and has been temporarily barred from practicing. The Texas Medical Board suspended Dr. Colvin's for writing more than 60 controlled substance prescriptions, mostly to women, between Dec. 7 and Feb. 2 despite having a restriction prohibiting him from treating female patients.
2. Surgeries at two Providence hospitals in Portland, Ore., were down by almost 50% in December and January amid an anesthesiologist shortageThe delay comes after the hospitals' anesthesia staffing was taken over by a private equity-backed physician staffing firm Sound Physicians, which did not have enough staffers to handle the volume of the hospitals.
3. Billings (Mont.) Clinic's contract with long-time anesthesia partner, Billings Anesthesiology, is set to expire on Feb. 9. After contracting with Billings Anesthesiology for several decades, the hospital has decided to form its own fully staffed anesthesia department.
4. The part-time and full-time anesthesiologists at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai's Beverly Anesthesiology unionized. Of the 139 employees eligible to vote on the union, 103 voted, with 78 in favor of unionizing.
5. Army anesthesiologist Maj. Michael Stockin, MD, has been accused of sexual misconduct related to 42 alleged victims. Army prosecutors are moving forward in a case that accuses Dr. Stockin, who worked at Madigan Army Medical Center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (Wash.), of 48 counts of abusive sexual contact and five counts of indecent viewing under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.