re: Wisconsin Hospital Replaces All Anesthesiologists with CRNAs

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It's actually a PHD program now, after a masters..

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You’re thinking of the DNP. Most NPs are just nurse practitioners not the Doctorate of nursing practice.

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But in every aspect of these discussions, I am always more interested in what do these people know practically speaking* versus what they were taught in school.

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This is where many people are mistaken. That underlying physiology, pharmacology, pathology, anatomy, etc. is super important to understanding why things work the way that they do. There is a reason why even after four years of intensive medical schooling, doctors are not allowed to practice independently. Yet we allow people with 5% of the training/education to go and practice independently without oversight? Someone who got their schooling entirely online except for minimum clinical hours and were never an RN. When you don’t know what you don’t know, that is what causes patient harm, because you don’t know when you’re over your head.

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If the MD has a substantially greater skillset, I will see the MD.

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That is where you are mistaken, sir. Starting with the VA and Medicare/Medicaid, patients are being forced to see NPs and PAs before seeing the doctor or in the place of doctors. No one deserves to have the choice of their provider taken away from them, especially not people who have served our country. This is now creeping into the private world. When the front desk lies to you and says that you can see the mid-level sooner and that they do the same thing as a doctor, keep in mind the training and know that if you stand your ground you will get to see the doctor. If not you need to find a different physician.

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If the skillset is not that substantially different, and the NP/PA is cheaper, I would weigh my options and *probably* consider the mid-level provider.

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I am a doctor and I will go see a mid-level for a medication refill or a URI but that is it. The skill set is not the same, and in most cases you are paying the same co-pay. The only person who profits from the encounter is the corporate medical group.

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"mid-level provider" isn't a thing, anywhere but reddit

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What are you trying to say here? Mid level providers are indeed “a thing” in every hospital I’ve been around recently and an increasing number of clinics and MD offices.

My brothers friend is an anesthesiologist, and the way he described the job was something like "99% monotony and 1% sheer terror, when something goes wrong".

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"99% monotony and 1% sheer terror, when something goes wrong".

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When I was deciding what to do when I grew up, I was looking at Anesthesia and someone said "It's pretty boring until you frick up".

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2 year program

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Depends on the program and specialty, some are 3years and 1,000 in clinical rotation hours. I'm not saying it's comparable to residency, but it's not an all online program like some are suggesting.

Looks like the price of healthcare finally caught up to healthcare professionals. I doubt the anesthesia fees are much less than previous but now the hospital gets to retain more money!!!

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We're all schmucks getting ripped off.

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Fact. Billing practices at hospitals and other medical care facilities are frickin bannanas.

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Fact. Billing practices at hospitals and other medical care facilities are frickin bannanas.

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And people think their veterinarians are ripping them off.

'$300 and all they did was stick their thumb up my dog's arse!'

That be $3000 in human medicine.

Paid not for what we do. Paid for what we know how to do when the time comes. 99% of the time it’s straight forward.

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Yet we allow people with 5% of the training/education to go and practice independently without oversight?

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I assume since they are giving medications like narcotics they'd have oversight regardless. It may be a doctor that isn't there, as I mentioned earlier, like how medics work, but there'd have to be a dr license to allow them to work under, correct?