The Standards Committee provides expert advice and guidance on the standards of anesthesia practice and related matters to the CAS Board and society members.
Updated guidelines and standards The CAS annually revises and publishes the Guidelines to the Practice of Anesthesia. This document provides “...recommendations (which) are aimed at providing basic guidelines to Anesthesia practice. They are intended to provide for a reasonable and acceptable quality of patient care and should be so interpreted allowing for some degree of flexibility in different circumstances…” These are not as rigid as ‘Standards” which are typically obligatory and mandatory but rather “Guidelines” which are advisory and are meant to be interpreted and applied to each clinical encounter using the professional judgment of the Anesthesia practitioner and/or Anesthesia department. The Chair of the CAS Standards Committee frequently receives questions and responds on behalf of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society in assisting with the interpretation of the Guidelines. Questions may be sent to standards@cas.ca The Q & A is available to CAS members.