Free Republic

— Concerns about staffing, quality of care, and pay cuts push physicians to organizeAnesthesiologists with Beverly Anesthesiology and Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles have formed a union, part of a continued wave of physician unionization in the U.S. About 75% of the anesthesiology group's voters were in favor of joining the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) during a 2-day vote in mid-January. Among a total of 139 eligible voters, 103 cast their ballot, and 78 voted to unionize, according to the National Labor Relations Boardopens in a new tab or window. "A lot of people felt we really had...

Colorado has joined 15 other states in allowing advanced-practice nurses to administer anesthesia without a doctor's supervision. Anesthesiologists fought the proposal, saying it would put lives at risk

Doctors shouldn't help put inmates to death by lethal injection or work with the legal system to ensure inmates don't feel pain when they are executed, said the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in a message to his colleagues. "The legal system has painted itself into this corner and it is not our obligation to get it out," Dr. Orin F. Guidry, president of the 40,000-member group, wrote in a message posted Friday on the organization's Web site. Patients could lose trust in their doctors if they see them as executioners, he wrote. Guidry said Monday he posted...