Highlights of ANESTHESIOLOGY 2022
By John F. Di Capua, MD, NAPA CEO
It was a pleasure to come together this year in New Orleans for the ASA ANESTHESIOLOGY 2022 annual meeting. As an industry, we are facing tremendous challenges. This event is invaluable and benefits anesthesiologists at all career levels—growing professional networks, learning from each other, and advancing our profession. It is essential to sit face-to-face with our colleagues and discuss strategies that support our providers so they can best serve their patients and communities. It helps align our thinking and focus our resources to combat issues and support our specialty and our industry.
Key topics of discussion
As an organization, NAPA has been talking extensively about the anesthesia labor shortage, which is no longer a looming threat but a real and present danger to patient access. I am pleased to see that the whole of our profession now recognizes this critical challenge, in that our country no longer has enough providers to serve the nation’s ever-growing demand. Burnout is a major contributing factor, leading to faster retirements and taking a toll on the providers who remain in practice. I was reassured to see that this overall topic has become prominent, with realistic short-term and long-term solutions being actively discussed.
The second major concern I heard throughout the event was understanding the consequences of the No Surprises Act and determining how we can work with elected officials to correct this body of law so it may serve society as Congress intended. As it stands today, this legislation is actively harming care access for our patients—not just in anesthesia, but also in hospitals that face aggressive commercial payor attacks. I sincerely support the concept of avoiding surprise bills for patients, but most anesthesia clinicians were already in-network. The No Surprises Act empowers payors to push clinicians out-of-network, which is unreasonable and unnecessary. I thank ASA President Randall Clark, MD, FASA, and ASA CEO Paul Pomerantz, FACHE, for lending their expertise at Center Stage with me to discuss various facets of the No Surprises Act and the current advocacy underway.
Preparing for the future
Throughout the meeting, I attended several poster sessions, including those presented by NAPA’s residents from Vassar Brothers Medical Center. We are incredibly proud of their innovation, and I was thrilled to see them engaging with other residents in the anesthesia community. We want to continue fostering that passion. In fact, I believe creating more residency programs is one of the solutions for today’s staffing crisis, with many hospitals across the U.S. wholly prepared to launch their own residency programs. As a nation, we have not been aggressive enough in expanding residency slots. There is undoubtedly a large supply of medical students interested in our field, and I am sure many more would pursue anesthesia if we had more training programs. We must expand the number of anesthesia providers in this country, and I heard agreement during the meeting that we can make this happen.
I also had the pleasure of connecting with representatives from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER), which we have been proud to support in multiple ways. As the government cuts back on funding, we see FAER taking up the reins to support research for young investigators. In addition to sharing their work, more than 50 residents attended the FAER gathering at ASA. I appreciated their excitement, and I look forward to future collaborations with this worthwhile organization.
Overall, I was grateful for the various opportunities to engage as colleagues, clinicians, and people—from hosting an energetic welcome party at the House of Blues to strategizing with peers, meeting with my exceptional Client Services team, and celebrating diversity by sponsoring and attending the 3rd annual LGBTQ+ & Ally Anesthesiologist event. Our industry faces headwinds, but ANESTHESIOLOGY 2022 was an excellent opportunity to unite and chart a course for 2023.