Contact: State Rep. Gus Blackwell
Capitol: (405) 557-7384

OKLAHOMA CITY—State Rep. Gus Blackwell said he is appalled by a legislative measure he said would reduce the number of pain-management treatment providers in rural Oklahoma, giving suffering rural citizens two choices: to live in pain or drive hours for treatment.

“It’s an insult to every rural Oklahoman, and if this bill passes every late-night comedian in American will once again be building their ratings by embarrassing Oklahomans,” said state Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell about Senate Bill 1133, which may come to the House floor soon. “The bill signals organized medicine’s official surrender to scope-of-practice expansion by non-MDs, which they have repeatedly targeted for much of the past decade as the primary threat to patient safety in Oklahoma.”

The bill rolls back the ability of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to provide pain management to rural Oklahomans.

The Goodwell Republican said Oklahoma’s CRNAs provide far more pain treatment legally, safely and within their scope of practice to more Oklahomans than anesthesiologists.

CRNAs operate under the supervision of MDs and osteopathic physicians in 41 Oklahoma counties where no anesthesiologists practice. Conversely, there is no county in Oklahoma where anesthesiologists solely operate.

“CRNAs are a bedrock medical provider to Oklahomans. Regardless of the untruths told by 1133’s backers, they do not practice medicine, nor do they desire to do so. Many doctors disagree with this foolish bill, and the MDs, osteopathic physicians and hospital administrators that work with CRNAs are angry that their patients are about to be harmed for no good reason. This is an outrage,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell said he believes the legislation is designed to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

“For much of the past decade, organized medicine has been telling us the greatest threat to Oklahoma’s patients is expansion of surgical privileges by non-surgeons. They’ve bought ads, issued press releases, raised campaign funds and sounded the alarm bell. Now they suddenly whirl and attack medical providers, CRNAs that legally and safely operate entirely within their scope of practice. This is madness, and I suspect it’s organized and orchestrated for profit or payback.”

If the bill becomes law, Blackwell said any Oklahoman not living in the state’s large urban areas would be denied quality health care.

“Rural Oklahomans and those living in smaller towns need to ask their legislator to reject the scare tactics and vote no on this bill, which looks like something Barack Obama, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi would design from Washington,” he says.

Blackwell said there is no real justification for depriving rural Oklahoma patients of providers.

Rep. Blackwell says the bill’s hypocrisy is evident with only a cursory examination.

“Not one patient advocate group has come forward asking for this bill. In fact, the patient advocates I’ve talked to are puzzled about why organized medicine has walked away from what they’ve been saying for years is the central threat to patient safety: dangerous expansion of scope of practice by untrained medical professionals.”

Blackwell says organized medicine’s surrender in their effort to roll back the scope of practice of medical personnel they claim are not qualified has seriously harmed their credibility.

“Now they attack CRNAs: Does that mean they’ve been lying to us for much of the past decade about the primary threat to patients on Oklahoma? Are they lying now? Regardless, this laughable bill and the rogue’s gallery of characters pushing for it guarantee one thing: Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jon Stewart won’t soon run out of material with which to mock Oklahoma anytime soon I’m sad to say.”

NOTE: For accompanying video, go to

http://www.okhouse.tv/ViewVideo.aspx?VideoID=243