Use of Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners in Primary Care, 1995-1999

2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-36
Author(s):  
Roderick Hooker ◽  
Linda McCaig
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Physician Assistants

scholarly journals A Retrospective Analysis of Provider-to-Patient Secure Messages: How Much Are They Increasing, Who Is Doing the Work, and Is the Work Happening After Hours? (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick North ◽  
Kristine E Luhman ◽  
Eric A Mallmann ◽  
Toby J Mallmann ◽  
Sidna M Tulledge-Scheitel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Care Physician ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Patient Portal ◽  
Secure Messaging ◽  
After Hours ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND Patient portal registration and the use of secure messaging are increasing. However, little is known about how the work of responding to and initiating patient messages is distributed among care team members and how these messages may affect work after hours. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine the growth of secure messages and determine how the work of provider responses to patient-initiated secure messages and provider-initiated secure messages is distributed across care teams and across work and after-work hours. METHODS We collected secure messages sent from providers from January 1, 2013, to March 15, 2018, at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, both in response to patient secure messages and provider-initiated secure messages. We examined counts of messages over time, how the work of responding to messages and initiating messages was distributed among health care workers, messages sent per provider, messages per unique patient, and when the work was completed (proportion of messages sent after standard work hours). RESULTS Portal registration for patients having clinic visits increased from 33% to 62%, and increasingly more patients and providers were engaged in messaging. Provider message responses to individual patients increased significantly in both primary care and specialty practices. Message responses per specialty physician provider increased from 15 responses per provider per year to 53 responses per provider per year from 2013 to 2018, resulting in a 253% increase. Primary care physician message responses increased from 153 per provider per year to 322 from 2013 to 2018, resulting in a 110% increase. Physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and registered nurses, all contributed to the substantial increases in the number of messages sent. CONCLUSIONS Provider-sent secure messages at a large health care institution have increased substantially since implementation of secure messaging between patients and providers. The effort of responding to and initiating messages to patients was distributed across multiple provider categories. The percentage of message responses occurring after hours showed little substantial change over time compared with the overall increase in message volume.

Primary Care Population Management for COVID-19 Patients

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
MD Deborah Blazey-Martin ◽  
FNP Elizabeth Barnhart ◽  
Joseph Gillis ◽  
Gabriela Andujar Vazquez
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Academic Medical Center ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Population Management ◽  
Severe Illness ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Primary Care Population ◽  
At Home

Abstract BACKGROUND: Most patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 have mild to moderate symptoms manageable at home; however up to 20% develop severe illness requiring additional support. Primary care practices performing population management can use these tools to remotely assess and manage COVID-19 patients and identify those needing additional medical support before becoming critically ill.AIM: We developed an innovative population management approach for managing COVID-19 patients remotely.SETTING: Development, implementation, and evaluation took place in April 2020 within a large urban academic medical center primary care practice.PARTICIPANTS: Our panel consists of 40,000 patients. By April 27, 2020, 305 had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR. Outreach was performed by teams of doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses.PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Our innovation includes an algorithm, an EMR component, and a twice daily population report for managing COVID-19 patients remotely.PROGRAM EVALUATION: Of the 305 patients with COVID-19 in our practice at time of submission, 196 had returned to baseline; 54 were admitted to hospitals, six of these died, and 40 were discharged.DISCUSSION: Our population management strategy helped us optimize at-home care for our COVID-19 patients and enabled us to identify those who require inpatient medical care in a timely fashion.

scholarly journals Collaborative practice trends in US physician office visits: an analysis of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), 2007–2016

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. e035414
Author(s):  
Shahpar Najmabadi ◽  
Trenton J Honda ◽  
Roderick S Hooker
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Collaborative Practice ◽  
Office Visits ◽  
Physician Office ◽  
Care Survey ◽  
Ambulatory Medical Care

ObjectivePractice arrangements in physician offices were characterised by examining the share of visits that involved physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs). The hypothesis was that collaborative practice (ie, care delivered by a dyad of physician-PA and/or physician-NP) was increasing.DesignTemporal ecological study.SettingNon-federal physician offices.ParticipantsPatient visits to a physician, PA or NP, spanning years 2007–2016.MethodsA stratified random sample of visits to office-based physicians was pooled through the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey public use linkage file. Among 317 674 visits to physicians, PAs or NPs, solo and collaborative practices were described and compared over two timespans of 2007–2011 and 2012–2016. Weighted patient visits were aggregated in bivariate analyses to achieve nationally representative estimates. Survey statistics assessed patient demographic characteristics, reason for visit and visit specialty by provider type.ResultsWithin years 2007–2011 and 2012–2016, there were 4.4 billion and 4.1 billion physician office visits (POVs), respectively. Comparing the two timespans, the rate of POVs with a solo PA (0.43% vs 0.21%) or NP (0.31% vs 0.17%) decreased. Rate of POVs with a collaborative physician-PA increased non-significantly. Rate of POVs with a collaborative physician-NP (0.49% vs 0.97%, p<0.01) increased. Overall, collaborative practice, in particular physician-NP, has increased in recent years (p<0.01), while visits handled by a solo PA or NP decreased (p<0.01). In models adjusted for patient age and chronic conditions, the odds of collaborative practice in years 2012–2016 compared with years 2007–2011 was 35% higher (95% CI 1.01 to 1.79). Furthermore, in 2012–2016, NPs provided more independent primary care, and PAs provided more independent care in a non-primary care medical specialty. Preventive visits declined among all providers.ConclusionsIn non-federal physician offices, collaborative care with a physician-PA or physician-NP appears to be a growing part of office-based healthcare delivery.

Primary Care and Physician Extenders in Affluent Countries

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milton I. Roemer
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Primary Care Physicians ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Major Response ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
Physician Extenders

The worldwide growth of specialization in medicine has led to a perceived shortage of primary care. A major response in the United States has been the training of physician extenders (both physician assistants and nurse practitioners). Other industrialized countries have rejected this approach, in favor of strengthening general medical practice through continuing education, provision of ancillary personnel, use of health centers, and by other methods. Developing countries use doctor-substitutes as a reasonable adjustment to their lack of economic resources. All countries use ancillary personnel for selected procedures, such as midwifery, which involve only limited judgment and decision making. The American strategy on use of doctor-substitutes for primary care, however, follows from unwillingness to train greater numbers of primary care physicians and to require them to serve in places of need. This results in an inequitable concentration of doctor-substitutes on service to the poor in both urban and rural areas.

Primary Care and Physician Shortages

2014 ◽  
pp. 10-30
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Community Health Centers ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Primary Care System ◽  
After Hours Care ◽  
Care Models ◽  
Provider Shortages ◽  
Care System

In this chapter, the author provides an overview of the primary care system. Primary care is the backbone of healthcare systems and is defined as “the provision of integrated, accessible healthcare services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal healthcare needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community” (Donaldson, 1996, p. 1). The primary care system in the United States is stricken with chronic systematic problems related to access, cost, and provider shortages. The chapter explicates the impact of recent legislation, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on these issues. It also highlights some solutions to increase access such as Community Health Centers (CHCs), the restructuring of care models to foster teamwork, the use of information technology, the provision of after-hours care, as well as the use of non-physician providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

scholarly journals Factors Associated With Having a Physician, Nurse Practitioner, or Physician Assistant as Primary Care Provider for Veterans With Diabetes Mellitus

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 004695801771276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perri Morgan ◽  
Christine M. Everett ◽  
Valerie A. Smith ◽  
Sandra Woolson ◽  
David Edelman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Care Provider ◽  
Primary Care Provider ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
State Level ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Provider Type ◽  
Electronic Health Record Data ◽  
Type Assignment

Expanded use of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) is a potential solution to workforce issues, but little is known about how NPs and PAs can best be used. Our study examines whether medical and social complexity of patients is associated with whether their primary care provider (PCP) type is a physician, NP, or PA. In this national retrospective cohort study, we use 2012-2013 national Veterans Administration (VA) electronic health record data from 374 223 veterans to examine whether PCP type is associated with patient, clinic, and state-level factors representing medical and social complexity, adjusting for all variables simultaneously using a generalized logit model. Results indicate that patients with physician PCPs are modestly more medically complex than those with NP or PA PCPs. For the group having a Diagnostic Cost Group (DCG) score >2.0 compared with the group having DCG <0.5, odds of having an NP or a PA were lower than for having a physician PCP (NP odds ratio [OR] = 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.79-0.88; PA OR = 0.85, CI: 0.80-0.89). Social complexity is not consistently associated with PCP type. Overall, we found minor differences in provider type assignment. This study improves on previous work by using a large national dataset that accurately ascribes the work of NPs and PAs, analyzing at the patient level, analyzing NPs and PAs separately, and addressing social as well as medical complexity. This is a requisite step toward studies that compare patient outcomes by provider type.

The Contribution of Physicians, Physician Assistants, and Nurse Practitioners Toward Rural Primary Care

Medical Care ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 549-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark P. Doescher ◽  
C. Holly A. Andrilla ◽  
Susan M. Skillman ◽  
Perri Morgan ◽  
Louise Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Physician Assistants ◽  
Rural Primary Care
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document