To amend sections 4723.01, 4723.43, 4723.432, 4729.01, 4731.27, 4731.35, and 4761.17; to enact new sections 4723.433 and 4723.434 and section 4731.513; and to repeal sections 4723.433, 4723.434, and 4723.435 of the Revised Code to revise the law governing the practice of certified registered nurse anesthetists.
HB52 revises Ohio law governing certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) and related advanced practice nursing provisions. The bill reorganizes and updates statutory definitions and practice rules for advanced practice registered nurses, including certified nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse-midwives, and CRNAs. It clarifies collaboration, consultation, supervision, and standard care arrangement language across the nursing, medical, pharmacy, and respiratory care chapters.
A central feature of the bill is a new framework for CRNAs to perform a broader set of anesthesia-related activities under consultation with a physician, podiatrist, or dentist, while preserving limits tied to the consulting professional’s scope of practice and the practice setting. The bill also creates documentation requirements in the patient record when a CRNA is authorized or prohibited from performing certain activities, and it specifies that the state medical board may not bar podiatrists in certain settings from consulting with CRNAs. Related changes update who may prescribe or order respiratory care services and align those provisions with the revised CRNA authority.
HB52 would amend multiple sections of the Revised Code affecting nursing licensure, medical practice, pharmacy definitions, and respiratory care. It would add new statutory authority for CRNAs, repeal and replace existing CRNA-related sections, and modify cross-references so that other health professions laws reflect the revised scope of practice. The bill would also affect physicians, podiatrists, dentists, hospitals, respiratory therapists, and employers that rely on standard care arrangements and consultation/supervision rules.
The available voting history suggests the bill was generally well received and not highly controversial in the legislative process. It passed the House Health Committee unanimously, passed the House with overwhelming support and only one dissenting vote, and later passed the Senate committee and Senate unanimously. That pattern indicates broad bipartisan support for the bill’s overall direction and for the professional practice changes it makes.
The main policy tension in HB52 appears to be the extent of CRNA autonomy versus physician, podiatrist, and dentist oversight. The bill expands and clarifies what CRNAs may do in consultation with those professionals, but it also preserves supervision/consultation limits, ties practice to the setting, and allows a consulting provider or facility to prohibit certain activities if not in the patient’s best interest. Another point of sensitivity is the bill’s interaction with scope-of-practice boundaries for podiatrists and dentists, since the CRNA’s authority is expressly limited to what those professionals may perform. The near-unanimous votes suggest these issues were resolved in a way that satisfied most members.