Nurse anesthetists bill fails panel vote

A bill to loosen a restriction on certified nurse anesthetists narrowly failed to clear a House committee Thursday.

Senate Bill 184, sponsored by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, would amend Arkansas Code 17-18-102 to require the nurses to work “in coordination with” rather than “under the supervision of ” a physician, dentist or other practitioner authorized to order anesthesia.

Supporters of the bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Justin Gonzales, R-Okolona, said it would change the law to more accurately reflect what often happens when anesthesia is administered.

In hospitals not employing anesthesiologists, a surgeon gives the order for the anesthesia but doesn’t supervise how it’s administered, they said. The bill’s supporters said it would also help attract surgeons who don’t want to be responsible for supervising the nurse anesthetist to rural hospitals without anesthesiologists. The Arkansas Society of Anesthesiologists and American Society of Anesthesiologists opposed the bill. Their representatives contend it would “dismantle the anesthesia team care model in Arkansas.”

The bill last week passed 21-4 in the Senate, with seven members not voting and two voting “present.” On Thursday, it fell one vote short of the 11 it needed to clear the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor and advance to the full House.