Anesthesia : History, Todays Marketplace, and Employment Environment
By: Cory Ellerd
Submitted: 2010-08-26 17:02:18 | Word Count: 624
History of Anesthesia
Anesthesia is an deep-rooted and historic medical specialty. The first anesthetic item known were opiates in pill form that were dated back as far as 4200 BC. One of the earliest recorded uses of opiates is in a piece known as the Ebers Papyrus of one thousand five hundred BC. A mere four hundred years later, the island nation of Cyprus was argiculturally farming Poppy flowers, and pipes used to smoke the substance were found in temples. Chinese and Indian opiate utilisation did not come about until a much later date, well into the 1st Millenia A.D.
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Not Enough Physicians, Including Anesthesiologists
From 1995 the total of anesthesiologists graduating from residency programs dwindled. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists the total of American anesthesia residency graduates decreased from 1,547 in 1995 to only 392 in 2000. During the same period, the number of practicing anesthesiologists increased by less than 9 percent, according to the AMA. This compares with a 13 percent increase in the number of physicians in all specialties.
The Marketplace and How it is Affecting Healthcare Services
The job deficit caused by the recession unswervingly impacts all physicians income. When millions of people lose their jobs, they also lose their health care insurance and physicians lose patients that can pay. With any luck the job deficit is a short term set back, but it does affect demand for services and income for physicians immediately. This in effect destroys the underlying projections of the growth of need made just a few years ago. Until the market picks up and the unemployment drops from 10% to the 4 to 5% area there is a great possibility that the demand for all health care services based on per crash assumptions is optimistic.
Failing Marketplace and Doctors are Getting Older
The recent stock market cave in is having a critical influence on close to retiring physicians, and their plans about retirement. Many doctors are postponing retirement for a few years, because of the losses they sustained in their retirement accounts. However, even a few years interruption of retirement won't address the increased demands caused by this lurking loss of experienced physicians. This postponement has already resulted in fewer jobs being offered and graduating residents not finding as many good opportunities as before. Some residents rather than committing themselves to less desirable full time jobs are opting for locum Anesthesia jobs.
CRNAs and How vital They Are
The growing cost of health care can dramatically affect demand for physicians services. CRNAs, who can perform many of the routine duties of physicians at a fraction of the cost, may be increasingly used. Furthermore, demand for physicians services is highly sensitive to changes in health care reimbursement policies. If changes to health coverage result in higher out-of-pocket costs for consumers, they may demand fewer physician services.
In rural settings, CRNAs are the sole anesthesia providers in nearly two thirds of all medical institutions. CRNAs are also the primary provider of obstetrical anesthesia in the United States.
Increase in the Demand for Anesthesia Services
The National Center for Health Statistics tells us inpatient surgeries were flat between 1994 and 2000. While the number of anesthesia providers has remained fairly constant in recent years, surgical volumes have grown nationwide, placing larger demand on the providers of anesthesia services.
