Protect Your Rights to Physician-Led Anesthesia Care

Patients in all communities, of all income levels, including in rural or underserved areas, deserve access to physician-led care. Yet there is increasing pressure to expand the scope of practice for mid-level healthcare providers in the name of expanding access to care. We have seen attempts by nurse anesthetists, who are currently required to practice under the prescriptive order of a physician, surgeon or dentist, to instead call for further expansion of their ability to practice without any physician oversight. But lowering patient safety standards in certain settings is not the solution – all patients deserve the safest protections and care by properly trained, credentialed practitioners.

To be clear, nurse anesthetists are an essential part of the physician-led anesthesia care team. But the risk comes when nurse anesthetists try to practice beyond their skills and training. Unfortunately, these risks became very clear recently at two hospitals in the Central Valley that were cited for closure and patient care violations by state and federal oversight agencies due to patient harms occurring from nurse anesthetist-led care.