If you're serious about patient safety and the quality of anesthesia care, read "Surgical Mortality and Type of Anesthesia Provider," a study in the April American Association of Nurse Anesthetist (AANA) Journal. The authors' conclusion that the type of anesthesia provider does not affect surgical mortality in hospitals is simply unfounded, in large part because the data are scientifically unsound. Even if one were to take the data on face value, a more reasonable conclusion would be that general anesthesia with the direct participation or oversight of an anesthesiology doctor is the approach associated with the least surgical mortality.