The first session of the House of Delegates at the annual meeting of the ASA was gaveled into order on Sunday, October 15, 2000. Following the invocation, the formalities of the introduction of guests and the presentation of the resident research awards and the media award drew hearty applause. The media award was presented by the Committee on Communications to an orthopedic surgeon from the Mayo Clinic. He aired a program entitled "All about Anesthesia" on his Saturday morning Health Talk program and gave credit for the outstanding participation by none other than our own Denise Wedel, MD.
Once the House was reminded of the importance of contributing to the ASA PAC (and congratulated for raising more than one million dollars in the past year), outgoing President Ron MacKenzie, DO, emphasized his perpetual support for patient safety in all realms of anesthesia practice, the effort needed to maintain physician supervision of all anesthetics, and his plan to create a legislative liaison from every state to organize for the next round of resistance to independent nursing practice. President-Elect Neil Swissman, MD, pledged his support to these themes in his presidential year to come. Did you know that the ASA has been publicly acknowledged for making enormous strides due to its own efforts and interests in patient safety? This is significant in light of the Institute of Medicine's "To Err is Human" report that has generated such concern about how safe patients really are while receiving medical care.
The official business of the session was to nominate officers for the coming year. The only contested race was that for First Vice-President. To jump ahead, the following were duly elected: Neil Swissman, MD-President, Barry Glazer, MD-President-Elect, Jim Cotrell, MD for First Vice-President (defeating Chuck Novak, MD), Bruce Cullen, MD as Vice-President for Scientific Affairs, Fred Guidry, MD as Treasurer, Eugene Sinclair, MD as Speaker of the House, Pete Hendricks, MD as Assistant Secretary, Roger Moore, MD as Assistant Treasurer, and Candance Keller, MD as Vice-Speaker of the House.
The afternoon was spent visiting the four reference committees in which various issues were brought up for discussion and debate. Issues which one thinks will stir heated debate may pass quickly and quietly, while a seemingly `dull' topic can take lengthy exchange before the session moves on. First off, the annual report from the ASRA passed with no comment! Changing the name of the ASA Committee on Pain Management to Pain Medicine sailed through unchallenged! That can't be said for the perennial discussion over the issue of OB anesthesia coverage and reimbursement, but how many times can this be thrashed out? The support for the practice of Anesthesia Assistants seemed strong on all fronts whereas independent CRNA practice was perceived as less desirable than the anesthesia care team concept. Office-based anesthesia safety issues were prevalent - can we assure safety in this setting in time to save this form of practice? The matter of raising ASA dues
was debated but passed, given that the ASA has now been introduced to the reality of a budget deficit. The greatest amount of discussion was devoted to the creation of an educational affiliate membership in the ASA. For at least two years a committee has been investigating this issue. In spite of their commendable effort, there were still significant questions raised about the membership benefits that would be provided with this category and the matter was referred back to committee for more evaluation.
The second session of the House was convened on Wednesday morning, October 18, 2000. There were 17,003 people at this year's ASA meeting. Betty Stevenson was elected as the recipient of the ASA's Distinguished Service Award for 2001 and was clearly a very popular choice. The above-mentioned elections were conducted in strict parliamentary fashion and the reigns of power transferred to Dr. Swissman.
The matter of having CRNAs belong to the component societies of the ASA was specifically addressed in the reference committee session. The answer was that such membership is up to each society. Thus, the ASRA will consider this possibility at a future Board meeting. The strengthening of the alliance between the ASRA leadership and the ASA Committee on Pain Medicine is proving to be very beneficial as to communication between the two groups and in the area of planning/arranging educational programs dealing with pain medicine.
Respectfully submitted,
John C. Rowlingson, MD
ASRA Delegate to ASA
Michael F. Mulroy, MD
Alternate Delegate
