6 ms·
Amid doctor shortage, NPs and PAs seemed like a fix. Data’s in: Nope
- jleyank 5y agoWow. A survey by doctors say not using doctors isn't as good as using doctors. Who'd a thunk it?
- quantified 5y agoMaybe expand beyond Hattiesburg, MS. Local factors might explain it.
- jleyank 5y agoWonder what the gender breakdown is for NP/PA vs. doctor, especially in that neck of the woods. And if it's pronounced, wonder if that has any influence on their ability to influence patience behaviour. As we know, MS is a hotbed of modern, unbiased activity...
- cfu28 5y agoI get the AMA is not exactly the most unbiased source, but the study the article refers to uses quality measures and cost data from electronic medical records. Survey is an uncharitable take.
- jfengel 5y agoThey seemed surprised by some of those results, and I hope they continue to dig into it. They cite "double-digit differences in flu and pneumococcal vaccination rates". I wonder if perhaps patients don't respond to NPs and PAs who say "you need a vaccine", but will accept it from a doctor. Perhaps the solution isn't to ensure access to a doctor, but find other ways to get patients to trust the non-doctor providers. I'm sure there are a lot of confounding factors, making that difficult. And they surely don't need Some Guy On The Internet pointing them out. But I hope they look into them, rather than just naively concluding that PAs and NPs can't do a lot of jobs for which they should be qualified.