Assemblyman Heath Flora, R-Ripon, has introduced two bills to upgrade the status of nurse anesthetists amid a shortage of physician anesthesiologists in California and controversy in Modesto about hospital policies.
Assembly Bill 876 would give certified registered nurse anesthetists (CNRAs) the long-sought-after authority to practice independently.
If approved and signed into law, the legislation would bring changes for patients in Stanislaus County and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley, where the shortage of physician anesthesiologists is more acute and smaller hospitals struggle to pay their fees.