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June 2003
Volume 67 |
Number 6 |
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ASA Membership: Its Value to Us and Our Responsibility
to It
It is with great pleasure that I can announce that as
of March 31, 2003, ASA membership hit another all-time
high of 38,501 members.Even more satisfying is that
the increase over last year was primarily in the active
and resident categories. We are growing where it counts.
Each month, one of your ASA officers traditionally addresses
aspects of ASA that he or she feels is important to
the membership. As ASA Secretary, I could be expected
to talk about the great importance of our increased
membership and emphasize my belief that there is strength
and effectiveness in numbers. However, I feel our time
together would be better spent discussing the value
we receive by being part of this Society and the responsibilities
we incur by being a member.
As in any organization of our size, members join, rejoin
after an absence and leave every year. The ASA membership
department sends out surveys to each member who is rejoining
or leaving to ask why. As you might expect, the rejoining
members have positive reasons for their actions. On
the other hand, most members leaving ASA generally give
more negative and disheartening reasons that often reflect
a lack of appreciation for ASA’s value. The three
most common reasons given for leaving (not in any order)
are:
| • I do not feel I am receiving value for
my membership. |
| • My component society does not provide
me with any benefits, yet ASA makes me join. |
| • I no longer practice anesthesiology,
as I am a pain doctor. |
There are other reasons given, but let us look at each
of the three major responses.
ASA Membership Value
ASA is truly a bargain at twice the price, and membership
benefits include:
| • A world-class Annual Meeting with lectures
by renowned anesthesiologists and presentations,
educational experiences and exhibits that, in
the words of a MasterCard commercial, are “priceless.”
The registration fee is $0 for members. It is
hard these days to find a continuing medical education
meeting with a registration fee under $600. In
addition, this meeting is undergoing an examination
and revamping of enormous magnitude by the ASA
Section on Annual Meeting to make it more responsive
and valuable to all ASA members, including generalists,
subspecialists and those in pain medicine. |
| • The journal Anesthesiology,
a world-renowned refereed journal, is free with
membership. Without membership, the journal costs
$246 per year. |
| • The ASA NEWSLETTER that you
are now reading is provided free as a member benefit
to keep you abreast of activities and topics going
on in the world of anesthesiology. |
| • An ASA committee and task force structure
supported by hundreds of ASA members who volunteer
their time and talents. These ASA committees and
task forces investigate and professionally advise
ASA leadership, as well as you as an ASA member,
on new information, technology and procedures
within the numerous areas of interest in our profession. |
| • Representation and updates on federal
legislation and regulatory issues. A prime example
is the ASA Washington Office, which works with
the ASA Committee on Economics to get each and
every one of us not only a positive update of
the Medicare fee schedule but a positive update
on work value as well. These efforts represent
thousands of hours put in by ASA members and staff
for you. To put it in real terms, let us say that
you do a Medicare gallbladder that pays $200,
and you do another one each day for 200 days a
year. The “extra” you get for these
cases alone is $1,080, which will pay for your
ASA dues, a generous ASA Political Action Committee
donation and maybe even a nice dinner. This a
“real” benefit, but it is only made
possible by “your” membership, which,
along with the other 38,500 members, makes it
possible to support the Washington Office and
ASA committees. |
| • Through your membership, you receive
the benefit of anesthesia research, safety information
dissemination and the history of our profession,
which are developed by ASA’s three foundations:
the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the
Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research
and the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology. |
| • The standards, guidelines and practice
parameters that help to guide your practice were
developed by ASA committees with members giving,
again, countless hours of their time to make practice
better for every anesthesiologist. By adhering
to these standards and guidelines, you have saved
thousands of professional liability premium dollars
as well as potential malpractice judgments. |
Component Society Membership
I have been asked numerous times since becoming Secretary,
“Can I be an active ASA member without being a
component member?” The answer is “no!”
The components are the foundation upon which ASA is
built. The perception that belonging to a component
society has no value is wrong. The component’s
value is more evident now than ever. A host of legislative
and regulatory battles are increasingly moving to the
states for adjudication. It is at the state level that
our professional integrity and stability (and I am not
talking just scope of practice) will be determined.
It is of the utmost urgency that the state components
be strong and effective. Component societies provide
organization and membership for facing these assaults.
ASA provides staff assistance from the Washington, D.C.,
and Park Ridge, Illinois, offices to state components
that are under assault, but ASA cannot wage the state
battle alone. “Outside” organizations are
always seen as intruders in state matters. Virtually
all the states are engaged or being engaged in some
legislative or regulatory battle; thus a member who
feels that his or her state component is not providing
any value may not be looking in the right place for
that value. Each ASA member must help to provide support
to the component by giving what is invaluable —
his or her time, talent and financial assistance.
“I am no longer practicing anesthesiology,
as I am a pain doctor”
This subject saddens me no less than the other times
I have written on it. I had the honor and good fortune
to have known John J. Bonica, M.D., and Harold Caron,
M.D., two of the founding fathers of pain medicine.
Neither considered himself less an anesthesiologist
because of his practice in pain medicine. In my experience,
the most knowledgeable and creative pain specialists
have been anesthesiologists. I will admit that in a
family with many different houses, one house occasionally
is not tended to as well as it could be. The interventional
pain community came to ASA with a valid complaint that
its needs were not being met. ASA immediately responded
by forming a task force on interventional pain medicine.
This task force reported back within six months with
a comprehensive report containing multiple recommendations
to address the concerns of pain medicine as a whole
and interventional pain medicine in particular. Many
of the recommendations are already being implemented,
including far-reaching changes that will take place
at the ASA 2003 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California.
There will be substantially increased educational opportunities
for the pain community as a whole and interventional
pain in particular, including a cadaver workshop. ASA
is exploring the possibility of joining the Pain Care
Coalition. The list of recommendations and proposed
solutions are extensive and offer another example of
how ASA is responding to the needs of all its members.
I hope our pain medicine family members and all others
see that that their strength for advancement and caring
for their patients sits under the umbrella of ASA. As
a family united, we make ASA a powerful instrument that
works for everyone. ASA is working hard for the betterment
of all its members, and I hope each member will work
with us for the betterment of all.
ASA needs each of you and the invaluable assets you
can give by belonging and participating. The charge
to the Committee on Membership is to make becoming a
member and staying a member of ASA as easy as possible
no matter what state you are in or moving to. In order
to accomplish this, your responsibility must be to keep
the ASA headquarters office in Park Ridge informed of
your address and e-mail changes. If you change components
and are having trouble, e-mail me at <plh@earthlink.net>
or the Park Ridge office at
<membership@ASAhq.org>,
and let us help.
Most importantly, call one of your state component officers,
and ask what you can do to help, or call your ASA state
director or alternate and ask how you can be of service
to ASA. This is our responsibility to a strong
Society that has given us so much!
Oh, by the way, if you do not know the names of your
component society officers, call, write or e-mail me
or look for them at <www.ASAhq.org/aboutAsa/asaComponentSocietyOfficers.htm>.
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The views expressed herein are those of the authors and
do not necessarily represent or reflect the views, policies
or actions of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
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