Technically, yes. But realistically, no. I mean, I'm not going to B.S. and say that a CRNA can replace an MDA. I've seen CRNAs and they're pretty much only good so long as the case is completely routine. I mean, it's basically like the difference between a nurse on the floor and a physician. If everything goes according to plan, you don't need the physician. If something goes wrong, they just start making up stuff and go "let's see if this will work ...no? Huh." Same thing with CRNAs.
But the thing is that with something like 95%+ of cases, the case is routine. And that's a good thing for everyone all around, patients and physicians. I'm not saying I'd want it otherwise. However, the point is that Anesthesiologists are largely useless. I mean, 99% of the time they're not even in the room. So for them to claim that they're "an integral part of patient care" or "vital to the operation" is rather specious.
Someone needs to administer the anesthesia. The problem is that Anesthesiologists essentially screwed themselves with a lack of work ethic. They're like ER physicians: they LOVE to tell you how little they have to work. The thing is, at some point, when you don't do any work, you have no job. ER physicians only have a job because the hospital administrators think that they smooth out patient flow. It's not like hospitals without ER physicians close or cease to exist. In fact, if you go back to the days before ER physicians, the ER was staffed with IM and Surgery guys. All the ER physicians do is basically act as middlemen. Instead of the IM and Surgery guys being down in the ER, the ER physicians call them down. Do they deflect some debris? Sure. Enough to justify the need for them to be physicians? Questionable. Point is, if it weren't for a current paradigm thinking that they improve patient flow ("income"), they'd also go extinct in about one week.
Basically, if you make yourself useless, you are useless. Bragging about how useless you are ("I'm about to sleep for 4 or 5 hours while you're working") is basically the mark of stupidity. But it's supposed to "rub me wrong" or something. Hey, if someone wants to advertise how stupid they are, that's fine with me.
