As educators of physician assistants and nurse practitioners, we read with interest the article about Georgia’s doctor shortage in Sunday’s Savannah Morning News.
If there is one thing that the recent health care debate made clear, it is that Americans are unwilling to trade quality for economy when it comes to their health. Sunday’s article stated that Georgia will be “about 5,000 physicians short of needed levels by 2030,” which lines up with national projections as well.
Another recent study, reported on the American Medical Association’s website, discovered a “silent exodus” of physicians as they cut back on office hours and numbers of patients seen.
As Georgia and the nation confront the shortage, a trend born in underserved areas of the country could cut costs without sacrificing quality: The use of non-physician professionals, such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners, in primary care facilities.
What are non-physician professionals? Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who further their training through a graduate-level program to become adult health nurse practitioners, family nurse practitioners or other specializations. The beginning of the physician assistant profession came at Duke University in the 1960s, when the medical school sought to match military corpsmen returning from the battlefield (with much experience but little formal training) with medically needy rural areas of the country.
Both groups of professionals can provide clear benefits for both patients and the financial side of the health care industry. When patients see a physician assistant or nurse practitioner instead of a physician, medical practices are able to serve more patients for a lower cost, since non-physician professionals are paid less than physicians but services are generally reimbursed the same, regardless of which practitioner provides the care.
The use of non-physician professionals is spreading from rural and other underserved areas and is now common in more dense and affluent areas. It can increase the effectiveness of the clinic’s providers by allowing the physician assistant or nurse practitioner to take care of less complicated patient issues and leaving the physician to treat the more complex cases.
Patients are not only becoming more accustomed to receiving care from nurse practitioners and physician assistants; they say they are not experiencing any reduction in the quality of care. In fact, patient satisfaction scores are very good for both physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
Being able to navigate the complex diagnoses and treatment options in modern medicine is important. And since non-physician professionals work under the supervision of a physician, they can seek advice and confirmation of decisions when necessary. We believe that kind of teamwork is the key to quality care.
As physician assistants and nurse practitioners become more common throughout the country, patients are beginning to embrace the team approach to health care and the concept that costs can be cut without a decrease in quality.
John Burns, MMSc, PA-C, is director of the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies program at South University’s Savannah campus. Doris Parrish, Ph.D., RN, is director of the Master of Science in Nursing program at the campus.