National Anesthesiologists’ Week was January 25-31. The week was spent by your CSA leaders educating the public, policymakers, and stakeholders about the extensive education and expertise of anesthesiologists in ensuring patient safety before, during, and after surgery. We hosted a panel of multidisciplanary experts to explore maternal morbidity and mortality with legislators and community stakeholders. CSA leaders engaged with legislators, leaders of regulatory agencies and other community stakeholders over the course of two days in Sacramentoo educate and provide resources for them about what we do as a profession and build on our foundation of relationships with our lawmakers. These relationships are key for being trustworthy experts the legislators can count on to provide timely, accurate and excellence in information with utmost goal of always protecting patient safety and our profession.
We hosted a multidisciplanary panel, “Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis in California: A Policy & Public Health Conversation”, in Sacramento on January 28th. The event was well received and attended by legislative staff, community stakeholders and Assemblymember Corey Jackson. The panel included the California State Surgeon General, Dr. Diana Ramos who is also a practicing physician in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Brendan Carvhalo who is the Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology & Maternal Health at Stanford, Dr. Carolina Reyes who is a Maternal and Fetal Medicine Physician at UC Davis, Ms. Liz Freeman who is a Registered Nurse Certified in Inpatient Obstetrics, and myself, moderated by Ms. Brianna Taylor a health and wellness and audience engagement reporter for PBS KVIE. The conversation demonstrated the key role anesthesiologists play in the multidisciplanary team in caring for maternal populations, the disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality that exist among our black mothers, an overview of the problem in California and nationally compared to other developed nations, demonstrated how California has been able to improve the care through implementation of regulatory, legislative and policy changes and explored the work we still have to do together. The audience was engaged and had robust discussion during q&a. This event was one of many that we hope to have in the future engaging the legislators, stakeholders, experts and media on a medical crisis topic that we can come together across disciplines to improve the overall health of all Californians.
