AA Legislation Passed in Oklahoma

[jwk]

I'm happy to pass along the news that Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma has signed SB1577 into law, authorizing AA licensure and practice in the great state of Oklahoma. Many thanks to those who assisted in this effort, especially the Oklahoma Society of Anesthesiologists and other interested physicians and members of the medical community in Oklahoma.

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[IrishTwins]

Well that makes my day! Is that 17 states now? btw, did you get my PM?

 

[jwk]

Well that makes my day! Is that 17 states now? btw, did you get my PM?

Yep - I'll get back with you soon.

 

[Taurus]

Dude, you rock.

Here's the bill that passed.

webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/2007-08bills/HB/SB1577_hflr.rtf

So here's the current AA tally:

States that license:
Alabama
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Missouri
New Mexico
Ohio
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Vermont

States that allow AA to work under physician delegation:
Colorado
Michigan
New Hampshire
Texas
West Virginia
Wisconsin

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

Good news. Hopefully Kansas will soon follow suit.




BTW, what is the difference between states that license AA's and those that allow AA's to work under physician delegation?

 

[Apollyon]

Even though SC is an AA state, in the quarterly medical board newsletters, it seems static at the number licensed in the state being 7. (That is to say, I don't know if people don't know that it's an option, or it's being discouraged even though it's legal.)

 

[IrishTwins]

Is that list accurate? I thought North Carolina and Texas had passed licensure legislation?

 

[Taurus]

Is that list accurate? I thought North Carolina and Texas had passed licensure legislation?

Kentucky did an AA study as recently as 2/08. I got the list from there.

http://www.asahq.org/Newsletters/2008/02-08/AA_Study_Report337.pdf

 

[jwk]

Is that list accurate? I thought North Carolina and Texas had passed licensure legislation?

NC has licensure and is accepting applications as of early this year - it definitely is on the list.

Texas is open through delegatory authority. There are a number of AA's working with GHA, as well as scattered in some other parts of the state. Licensure has to work it's way through the legislative process, and of course there are 2000+ CRNA's in Texas that would rather spend their time playing the "woe is me" game and expounding on the evils of AA's that they've never worked with or seen, instead of just doing their job and taking care of patients.

Kentucky put out a very well researched and written study. Hopefully they'll open up in the next few years.

South Carolina has AA's working - not sure why more haven't gone there. It's more a matter of numbers than anything else. There's not a lot in Florida either, but the first Nova AA class is getting ready to graduate, and many of them have Florida jobs lined up. I've seen their students in clinical rotations at my hospital - they've been excellent.

The bright side is that we are rapidly increasing the number of graduates. From 20-30 a year from two programs just a few years ago, there will be over 100 graduates this year from the four programs, and the number will keep increasing as we continue to open new AA programs, including UMKC which is now halfway into it's inaugural year.

 

[IrishTwins]

UMKC is the program I'm looking at, being here in KC already. I spoke with the director who was extremely helpful. Sounds like they have a great program going there. She told me that they had 100 applicants this year (accepted 4.) I know this has been posted before, but she said they plan on doubling class size each year until they reach 20.

Any projection, jwk, on how applicant numbers will likely increase with each year? I'm hoping the competitiveness might ease a bit by the time I'd be applying (two more years.)

 

[jwk]

UMKC is the program I'm looking at, being here in KC already. I spoke with the director who was extremely helpful. Sounds like they have a great program going there. She told me that they had 100 applicants this year (accepted 4.) I know this has been posted before, but she said they plan on doubling class size each year until they reach 20.

Any projection, jwk, on how applicant numbers will likely increase with each year? I'm hoping the competitiveness might ease a bit by the time I'd be applying (two more years.)

Their application pool will most certainly increase now that the program is up and running. This will be an excellent program - there have been students from the other programs doing rotations in KC, and they give rave reviews of the experience.

 

[Taurus]

So we've proven that we can get AA legislation passed.

Why is has it been so slow to open more AA schools?

Is that the strategy? First pass legislation and then open schools?

I figure that we'll need 20 AA schools to make significant inroads into the CRNA monopoly.

 

[jwk]

So we've proven that we can get AA legislation passed.

Why is has it been so slow to open more AA schools?

Is that the strategy? First pass legislation and then open schools?

I figure that we'll need 20 AA schools to make significant inroads into the CRNA monopoly.

It takes money - both to open a school and for instructors to teach.

 

[core0]

It takes money - both to open a school and for instructors to teach.

The instructors is probably a real issue. You can look at the PA experience. A lot of programs opened in the late 60's early 70's. Then 2-3 per year for about 10 years, then none for about 8 years (probably due to the "we have to many physician predictions"), then 60 programs in three years. The group of educators that started in the mid 90's are now at the point where they can run programs. So in the PA world we've moved past educators as the limiting factor. There is discussion on whether we'll see another jump in the number of PA schools or whether clinical sites will become the limiting factor.

AA's are probably reaching critical mass in terms of educators. The other issue is can programs afford to pay enough to educators to entice them to academia (a common problem in medicine).

David Carpenter, PA-C

 

[IrishTwins]

I think you all are right about lack of manpower. The lady I talked to cited that as the very reason why their program was starting as small as it is.

ETA: Taurus, I think that's most likely the train of thought. I know that if Missouri wasn't a license state, I probably would not have considered the program at UMKC at all. I don't want to be forced to move right after graduation.

 

[Taurus]

I think the ASA should provide a little push for schools to start AA programs. Like, giving out 25k grants for schools to start them.

We should contact the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to ask them for grant money. We could make a strong case for why we need to have more anesthesia providers.

 

[stewiegriffinFG]

^^ Nah, they wouldn't go for it. Bill's mom is a CRNA.

 

[toughlife]

^^ Nah, they wouldn't go for it. Bill's mom is a CRNA.

He meant Bill Gates of Microsoft not Bill Clinton.

 

[stewiegriffinFG]

wink wink, damn it!

 

[coprolalia]

I know they're pushing for AA legislation in PA. Probably ain't gonna happen anytime soon for the reasons elucidated above. Right now, we have CRNA schools popping up like mushrooms on cow crap after a summer rain. Our residency program takes CRNA students, and sometimes they get choice cases over the residents. It's complete BULLSHIDO!



-copro

 

[IrishTwins]

I read something on an Oklahoma forum (found it from googling oklahoma aa legislation) about the bill being "pushed through" pretty forcefully. Looks like the ASA has enough power to get things done, despite resistance. PA might be next!

 

[Taurus]

I read something on an Oklahoma forum (found it from googling oklahoma aa legislation) about the bill being "pushed through" pretty forcefully. Looks like the ASA has enough power to get things done, despite resistance. PA might be next!

Yeah, I was surprised by how quickly this passed. Not much resistance at all. It's probably easier to pass this legislation in those less populated states. If that's the best strategy, then it's fine by me. We'll eventually come back to those bigger states like CA, TX, PA after we've collected more states. It's like Obama's strategy. Hillary won most of the big states, but lost the nomination because she lost sight of the smaller states.

 

[Taurus]

http://www.ok.gov/newsroom.php?page_id=1182&type=1

Here's some more info. Looks like the real deal.