VOLUME 32, ISSUE 1

ACTIONS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS
TSA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

  1. Recognized resident members who were present: Paden Karnes, Xuan Langridge and Adam Moore.
  2. Recognized Mr. Gerardo Trejo, Texas Society of Anesthesia Technologists and Technicians (TSATT) President.
  3. Recognized Drs. Charles E. Cowles and Shannon Hancher-Hodges for their continued support of the TSATT.
  4. Recognized and applauded G. Ray Callas, MD for his service as TSA President.
  5. Approved the minutes of the May 18, 2019 TSA Board of Directors Meeting as written.
  6. Approved motion to provide sponsorship to all TSA resident programs to attend the ASA Practice Management Conference in the amount of $1,000 each for a period of (5) years.
  7. Recognized Drs. Lisa Caplan (Texas Children’s Hospital), Semhar Ghebremichael (UT Houston), Joseph Hendrix (UT Southwestern) and Beth Teegarden (UTMB) for being accepted into the 2020 TMA Leadership College.
  8. Appointed Dr. Jeffrey S. Richards to the office of Interim Director for District 5.
  9. Noted that due to Dr. Kristina Goff’s appointment as the Chair of the GAC Sub-Committee on Resident Involvement in Governmental Affairs she has now been appointed to the GAC Advisory Board.
  10. Appointed the Ad-Hoc Committee to Formalize the Wednesday Night Dinner. The members of the Committee are: Drs. H. A. Tillmann Hein (Chair), G. Ray Callas, Carin Hagberg and John Scott.
  11. Approved motion to change the Council of TSA Members Serving the TMA to a TSA standing committee. The committee will serve as mentors for younger members seeking to be more involved in the TMA and their county medical societies. Drs. Stacy Norrell and Elizabeth Rebello were appointed co-chairs of the committee.
  12. Appointed Drs. Debbie Plagenhoef and Jeff Plagenhoef as co-chairs of the Ad-Hoc Committee to Bring the TSA and TAAA Together. The co-chairs were charged with re-invigorating the committee. Dr. Tom Oliverson will serve as a consultant to the committee and Dr. Carin Hagberg will serve as a committee member.
  13. Informed the members that Dr. Evan Pivalizza will be reaching out to medical schools to identify the best point persons to serve on the Outreach Program for Medical Students.
  14. Approved motion that Drs. Amr Abouleish, Chris Cook and Sherif Zaafran be allowed to look into the purchase of Fair Health data. The purchase must include guardrails for the complete protection of the TSA. Once complete, the information will be delivered to the Executive Committee for further consideration.
  15. Changed the Ad-Hoc Committee on Leadership Development to a Sub-Committee of the Professional Development. Dr. Jeff Plagenhoef was appointed as chair of the sub-committee.
  16. Approved $5,000 for the purchase of office chairs.
  17. Approved $61,000 for salary increases for employees of TSA.
  18. Announced that the Administrative Affairs Committee will be researching health insurance benefits for TSA employees.
  19. Noted that the Professional Development Committee will be investigating babysitting options for the TSA Annual Meeting.
  20. Acknowledged and recognized Dr. Vijaya Gottumukkala, the entire Education Committee, Chris Bacak, the TSA meeting staff with applause for their continued efforts in making the Annual Meeting a success.
  21. Announced that the TSA will be providing a full day of CME during TexMed.
  22. Recognized Drs. Amr Abouleish, Ray Callas, Patrick Giam and Jeremie Perry for their assistance with the 2019 Annual Meeting breakouts.
  23. Informed the Board members that the Education Committee is planning to implement a fee for workshop registrations in hopes of eliminating no-shows. This year there were 107 registered to attend the TEE workshop and only 40 attended. This impacts not only the logistics of the workshop planning but prevents others from attending.
  24. Announced that moving forward speakers who do not adhere to submission deadlines will not be invited to speak for a period of 2 years and/or not have their registration fee waived. The Education Committee is reviewing this issue.
  25. Recognized Dr. Tom Oliverson for his work on SB 1264.
  26. Announced that the GAC will develop a list of TSA position speakers who will present TSA issues to legislators during legislative interim sessions.
  27. The GAC and Communications Committee will work in conjunction with each other to host a dual directional webinar or webinar series in hopes that members will fully understand the implications of SB 1264. Approximate cost will be $1,000.
  28. Announced that the GAC is very pleased with the Attorney General’s Opinion regarding the definition of medical practice and an anesthesiologist practicing medicine.
  29. Appointed an Ad-Hoc Committee on CRNA Supervision to monitor the Attorney General’s Opinion. The Committee will also monitor what the Texas Medical Board does regarding supervision and then it will provide the information to our members. The members of the ad-hoc committee are Drs. George Williams (Chair), Amr Abouleish, James Arens, David Bryant, Christopher Cook, Jeff Plagenhoef, Crystal Wright and Sherif Zaafran.
  30. Announced that Dr. George Williams has appointed a GAC sub-Committee to investigate HCA’s plan to roll out a nationwide policy requiring a physician who is contracted at an HCA facility to be in-network. The members of the sub-committee are: Drs. Austin Street (Chair), Christopher Cook, Udaya Padakandla, John Scott, Jacob Stetler and Mr. Clayton Devin.
  31. Recognized Bonnie Bruce, Ashlee Quick, Drs. Jeremie Perry and David Gloyna for their continued PAC fundraising efforts.
  32. Announced that the TSAPAC raised $176,238 during the 2019 Annual Meeting, this amount included on site contributions of $104,263. This is the best year the PAC has ever had at the annual meeting.
  33. Approved funding of $1,600 every 5 years for the TSAPAC to update its booth mural.
  34. Approved appointment of Dr. John Scott as the TSAPAC Chair.
  35. Recognized Dr. Sherif Zaafran for his past service as the TSA GAC Chair.
  36. Informed the members that the TSA provided sponsorship to TSA Resident members to attend this year’s Saturday night family event.
  37. Approved a one-pager on TSA ASA Membership Value. The document will be posted on the TSA website, it will be included with electronic member renewal statements, it will be included in TSA electronic Newsletter publications, and it will be available for the TSA District Directors to use in their communications with anesthesiologists to emphasize the value of TSA and ASA membership.
  38. Requested that the Board members assist the TSA Resident Component (TSARC) by reaching out to resident program directors asking them to prepare their resident work schedules in a manner that will allow residents to attend the various TSA meetings.
  39. Approved motion to schedule the first 2020 Board meeting in Austin on January 25th.

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