The days are getting longer here in Oregon, and that means that the Oregon Society’s Spring Meeting is rapidly approaching. It will be held at the Salishan Lodge in Gleneden Beach, Oregon the weekend of May 15-16.

Many anesthesiologists participate in medical outreach efforts to underserved regions around the world. The tragic earthquake in Haiti is a disaster of unimaginable scope. There will be opportunities for us to offer humanitarian assistance as the citizens of Haiti begin the difficult challenges of rebuilding their country. The medical infrastructure in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas has been severely damaged, and experts anticipate that Haiti will need outside help in delivering medical and surgical services for the foreseeable future.

A number of humanitarian organizations have taken the lead in coordinating these efforts. The American Society of Anesthesiologists has published a web page to help those of us who want to help to do so in the most effective way possible. If you do participate, please share your story with us. Our thoughts and prayers are with the survivors of this tragedy.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently updated the interpretive guidelines for hospital participation in the Medicare program. Several changes impact the delivery of anesthesia services within the hospital and will probably impact the practice of most anesthesiologists. The important revisions involve timing of a preoperative assessment, post-operative note, and a redefinition of labor neuraxial blocks as analgesia services, eliminating physician supervision requirements for nurse anesthetists and anesthesia assistants. ASA is currently reviewing these revisions and will provide additional information when available.

For additional information, please see this ASA posting.

The Oregon Medical Board has instituted a new administrative rule related to continuing medical education requirements and demonstration of ongoing competency as a prerequisite for renewing an Oregon medical license. The rule requires:

1. Ongoing participation in re-certification by an American Board of Medical Specialties board, the American Osteopathic Association's Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists or the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants;
   
   OR
   
   
2. 60 hours of continuing medical education per two years relevant to the licensee's current medical practice as follows:
• American Medical Association Category 1;
• American Osteopathic Association Category 1-A; or
• American Academy of Physician Assistants Category 1 (pre-approved)

If you are not participating in re-certification by the ABMS board, the AOA-BOS board, or the NCCPA board, you must complete the applicable credit hours by October 2011 (for the next renewal period 2012/13).

Thanks to the OMA for bringing this to our attention. For further information, see the specific Oregon Medical Board administrative rule OAR 847-008-0070 .

For those with ties to Oregon anesthesiology, we look forward to seeing you this weekend in New Orleans.

2009 Oregon Anesthesiology Reception

Saturday, October 17, 2009 from 5:30 ? 7:30 p.m. CDT at:

ACME OYSTER HOUSE
French Quarter
724 Iberville
New Orleans, LA 70130

Sponsored by the OHSU Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and the Oregon Society of Anesthesiologists.

A number of those attending requested links to the references cited at the Oregon Perioperative Quality Summit presentations.

• Oregon Patient Safety Commission White Paper on Glycemic Control as cited by Dr. Sheppard
• Hall BL, Hamilton BH, Richards K, Bilimoria KY, Cohen ME, Ko CY. Does surgical quality improve in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program: an evaluation of all participating hospitals. Ann Surg. 2009;250:363-376. as cited by Dr. Ko
• ASA Newsletter Critical Care focus issue September, 2009 as cited by Dr. Brambrink
• Norm Cohen's presentation on national quality initiatives

The Food and Drug Administration has announced that a new reference standard resulting from the heparin contamination issue last year will lead to about a 10% reduction in actual potency. This may affect your dosing of heparin in the perioperative period for vascular, cardiac and other procedures.

For more information, see this press release at http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm184502.htm.

The brochure for the Oregon Perioperative Quality Summit will be in your mailbox in the next few days. If you can't wait, you can download it here.

Make your reservations today and help us define our own future when it comes to quality in perioperative medicine and surgery.

To learn more about the meeting, please see this article.

The ASA will be hosting a webinar focusing on pain coding. If you deliver chronic pain services or you have staff who must determine the codes for these procedures, you should consider attending. This will be an excellent opportunity to improve your knowledge base and help assure compliant coding that will possibly improve your collections AND keep you out of trouble with regulators.

For more information, visit this ASA Webinar page.