Colorado hospitals can now choose whether to employ anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, or a combination of the two. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that advanced-practice nurses can administer anesthetics without supervision in response to an appeal by the Colorado Society of Anesthesiologists and the Colorado Medical Society. Advanced-practice nurses who work one year in critical-care jobs and earn their master’s degree are eligible to become anesthetists. Nursing boards claim the training is identical to an anesthesiologist and that they be able to administer anesthesia unsupervised. Doctor’s groups, however, disagree claiming that should patient complications arise; a licensed doctor is the best person for the job. Hospitals and other healthcare providers are siding with the nurses and the courts. They claim there aren’t enough anesthesiologists in the state as it is and, even less so, in rural areas. In addition, hospitals claim that they need cost-effective solutions to prepare for the increase in patients due to healthcare reform. New Advanced-Practice Nurse’s Regulation May Be Causing a Bit of a Medical Turf War While hospitals are looking for improved operations and cost reduction opportunities, nursing and physician groups are ramping up their public relations. In an article in the [+]

The HCAHPS* survey is valuable to healthcare employers and nurse staff alike in that survey results allow hospitals to compare patient experiences geographically with a hospital’s own data and to engage improvement in eight key performance areas: Communication with doctors Communication with nurse staff Responsiveness of hospital staff Pain management Communication about medicines Discharge information Cleanliness of hospital Quietness of hospital environment Patients ranked communication with nurse staff highest in hospitals in Louisiana, South Dakota, North Carolina, Vermont and Mississippi and lowest in hospitals in California, Nevada, Washington D.C. and Hawaii, based on the HCAHPS survey national average. The complete results of the 2009 HCAHPS patient satisfaction survey can be found online at the official HCAHPS website. While communication with nurses and doctors - along with responsiveness of hospital staff and hospital cleanliness - fared well overall in the patient satisfaction survey, patient opinions were markedly lower in areas of communications about medicines, discharge and hospital quietness. The HCAHPS survey, formally endorsed by the National Quality Forum in 2005, embraces three main objectives. First, to identify what consumers feel is most important or lacking in the patient care experience; second, to inspire healthcare employers and nurse staff to continually improve quality of care and [+]