Here are 9 updates and moves on anesthesia groups, policies and providers since Oct. 10, as reported by Becker's:
1. The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology is calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow certified registered nurse anesthetists to practice autonomously. CRNAs are the primary providers of anesthesia care in the U.S. military and are sometimes the only providers of anesthesia operating on base, but they are the only advanced practice registered nurses in the VA who cannot practice without supervision.
2. Springfield (Mass.) Anesthesia Service will close Dec. 31, laying off 91 employees. Springfield-based Baysate Health has offered jobs to all staff affected by the closure, and 90% have accepted.
3. North American Partners in Anesthesia has launched a managed services line, which is designed to address operating room needs for health systems and academic medical centers.
4. Torrance, Calif.-based Turiya Anesthesia, a physician-owned anesthesia group, has partnered with Emanate Health Intercommunity Hospital in Covina, Calif.
5. The American Society of Anesthesiologists no longer advises that patients pause their GLP-1 medications. This guidance may not apply to patients with increased risk for slowed gastric emptying or other significant GI conditions, among other considerations.
6. ASA also elected Jeffrey Mueller, MD, as its first vice president. Dr. Mueller is an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minn., and a staff anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. He will serve a one-year term.
7. Wilmington, Del.-based ChristianaCare and Wilmington University have partnered to launch the state's first CRNA program.
8. Chicago-based Rosalind Franklin University earned full accreditation for its nurse anesthesia program.
9. Lawmakers in Tennessee are again considering a bill that would expand the scope of responsibility for certified anesthesiologist assistants to practice in the state amid the anesthesia provider shortage. A similar bill died in committee in the last legislative session.