Should Doctors Hire Physician Assistants (PA) To Reduce Workload?
Did you know, in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Congress has recognized PAs (Physician Assistants) as one of the three healthcare professions in primary care. Due to the general medical background, PAs are quite responsive to the changing healthcare needs. From primary care to surgery, they are uniquely suited to provide preventive care service in all types of medical settings. Since they work in concert with physicians, it becomes easier to deliver comprehensive range of medical services to a diverse population of patients.
Physicians can enhance the efficiency of their clinical operations by employing PAs. Since providers across the US are overworked and under the pressure of handling increased patient loads, they can always benefit from more clinical support.
PAs and nurse practitioners are in high demand due to the increasing shortage of physicians. Here is what practices can expect from physician assistants:
PAs are experts at diagnosing patients’ illnesses and injuries. They can also perform physical examinations and provide treatment plans to the patients. At times, PAs also provide services that doctors provide but under the supervision of one or more physicians. Since PAs have advanced education and credentials, they are able to offer good assistance to physicians.
PAs are not only being hired to reduce workload of physicians but also for counteracting physician shortage. It is being expected that US healthcare industry will face a physician shortage of approximately 90,000 by 2020 and 130,000 by 2025. To help alleviate the shortage, PAs are in high demand. Currently, there is approximately 1 PA for every 10 physicians in clinical practice.
Paperwork burden is causing trouble for physicians. Since documentation is a critical portion of patient encounters, physician can’t overlook the same. But by hiring PAs, they can certainly reduce the burden of handling paperwork and documentation, including insurance forms, prescriptions, refills, notes, medical record updates and so on.
By hiring physician assistants, providers can also increase their income and number of patients they see on a daily basis. Physicians can accommodate more patients in a day if expert PAs are handing routine treatment plans and completing time-consuming paperwork.
Since running a healthcare practice is all about delivering quality care and improving patient experience, hiring a physician assistant can bring lots of benefits for practices. Physicians will be able to give more time to patients since other vital tasks will be handled by the PAs.
