Summary: The Shortage Of Physician Assistants

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already struggling to train more doctors. Evidence suggests there won’t be enough number of doctors to treat the newly insured millions under the ACA. At current graduation and training rates, America faces a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. Emergency rooms, the only choice for patients who can't find care elsewhere, may grow even more with longer wait times under the new health law. That might come as a surprise to those who thought getting 32 million more people covered by health insurance would ease ER

One of them is the Physician Assistant profession. PAs are filling in the roles once filled by physicians. This is mostly seen in the rural parts of the United States and in rural parts of other countries. According to Hooker, Cawley, and Everett (2011), a component of health-care reform in 2010 identified physician assistants (PAs) were needed to help reduce the expected doctor shortage. The way PAs are slowing down the physician shortage is by the role they play in healthcare.

At the practice level, physician assistants have taken over many duties once handled by doctors. Physician assistants working in family medicine receive about half the salary of doctors, and those working in areas of specialties receive about one-third as much as doctors in the same specialty (Cunningham). Physician assistants are included in health care delivery system in many different settings and specialties. They represent10 percent of the primary care labor force and 9 percent of physicians in community health centers (AHRQ Stats No.3). Furthermore, most physician assistants work in a variety of specialties, including oncology, dermatology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, and behavioral health (Doven, Christian 2).

by a nurse equivalent is equivalent to care provided by a physician.. In addition, the

The Obamacare/ACA, might have helped numerous of individuals in acquiring health care, but the health professionals are facing a shortage of reimbursement difference for their services. As a result, Hospitals and healthcare providers were force to layoff personal and come up with innovative solutions. This point is proven by the renowned author, Amy Anderson by stating as follows: “The American health care framework has had shortages of personnel for quite some time and would not be prepared to give the adequate service to this amount of patients in need of medical attention. Training new professional health services personnel could take years. There is a shortage of graduates from medical and nursing schools. Doctors, nurses and health professional are sharing responsibilities prospective patients will face a longer wait time”. (Anderson, 2014)

The ACA will address the shortage of primary care physicians by funding training programs and

The aim of the ACA is to provide affordable health care to all Americans, but it still leaves some issues unaddressed that will impact the access to health care. Covino (n.d.), “Though the intentions of the legislation are good, the Affordable Care Act does little to improve the actual health care delivery system” (para.1, page 2). According to the American Medical Association, we are facing an increasing Physician shortage. As of 2010 we faced a shortfall of 13,700 physicians, the estimate is that number will increase to 62,900 by 2015, 91,500 by 2020, and 130,600 by 2025 (Krupa, n.d.), with primary care taking the largest impact. Health Care coverage will be of no benefit if there are no doctors to treat the patients. An example of this occurred in 2002 when Thailand’s’ “30 Bhat Scheme” added (CNN n.d.) “14 million people to the country’s health care system, resulting in long waits and subpar service” (Your health is covered, but who is going to treat you?) Several factors contribute to the physician shortage. Many physicians are reaching the age of retirement, the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates nearly 15 million physicians will be eligible for Medicare in the coming years (CNN n.d.). The increasing cost of malpractice insurance also deters many from pursuing a career in medicine, and is forcing some doctors to retire. Also contributing to the physician shortage is a lack of spots in residency programs. “In 2011, more than 7,000 were left

Health is a major issue in any city or country. Health is considered the most important thing when it comes to taking care of your body. Without the correct studies of how to take care and realize what is wrong with your health, you won’t know the exact problem of what is going on. This is where the professionals come in, in other words healthcare providers. A healthcare provider is defined as a provider of medical and health related services. We contact healthcare providers for diagnosis, treatments, screening, consultations, and preventions of any harm to our health; this is also why they are important to us. The range between healthcare providers widens from dentistry all the way to physical injuries. I personally want to be a health care provider but not do any gross stuff like switching out hearts and

As most kids grow up, their dream job changes all the time. One week they want to fly to the moon as an astronaut while the next week they want to rule the world as president. However, I’ve always wanted to help people by being a doctor. I would sit in front of the television mesmerized for hours by various trauma shows. I preformed surgery on my stuffed animals and diagnosed my friends and family with different fake illnesses. As I continued to grow up, I realized there is many types of jobs in the medical field that preform a variety of different services. After researching the different options, I fell in love with the idea of being a physician assistant (PA). A PA, supervised by a doctor, has the freedom to interpret tests, record progress, and diagnose patients. In order to become a PA, it takes a lot of schooling, but it is a rewarding job that I would be very good at. Ten years from now, I will be a great physician assistant due to the characteristics I already posses and the education that I will be receiving in the future.

After having a horrific knee injury, I became interested in Orthopedics. My whole life I have been interested in achieving a job in the medical field. Going to a hospital for any reason, always was the fascination of my day. I never thought of becoming a physician assistant until I sat down with my mom one night to help me decide my future. My dream job would be to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant and specialize in Orthopedics. A physician assistant, known as a PA, is someone who practices medicine on teams with physicians, surgeons, and other healthcare workers. They also examine, diagnose, and treat patients. The role of a physician assistant is basically just like the physician. They do the same task an attending does, except perform

While the demand of healthcare need increasers the United States facing a physician shortage. In recent years the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) has significantly increased and they are taking the part in providing healthcare cervices to the majority of patients. I believe nurse practitioners and physician assistants can practice independently from doctors and be free of oversight. Expanding the scope of NPs and PAs is essential to overcome the healthcare crisis we are facing; it will increase patient satisfaction and stabilizing the healthcare economy.

The rate of enrollment to medical schools in the United States has decreased from previous years, therefore there will be less licensed physicians within the health care field, as the older physicians age out. The growing elderly population in the United States, in need of medical care, is another reason for the increase in need for medical assistants. One last factor is the greater accessibility to health insurance for all. This is driving more people into the health care system, therefore spawning a need for more non-medical professionals, such as medical assistants who can assist on the administrative end to get the patients information into the system for care and

deficiencies that appears in the United States has placed the spotlight on the advanced practice nurses, involving nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to make up for the insufficiency physicians (Kleinpell, Ward, Kelso, Mollenkopf, & Houghton, 2015). With the NPs and PAs coming into the for forth to provide patients with high-quality healthcare at reduce costs. The PAs and NPs continue to inform patients on new medical advancement and treatment pertaining the patients? health conditions to ensure patients continue up-to-date knowledge and to encourage

The Affordable Care Act set forth millions of dollars to address the problems and concerns that are associated with existing physicians shortages. The Affordable Care Act also has provisions that are aimed to improve the education, ongoing training as well as to help with the recruitment of nursing, physicians, doctors as well as other health care personnel. In addition, there are provisions in place that help to increase workforces’ cultural competency, enhance faculty training of healthcare professionals, and diversity. The provisions also play a vital role because of the fact they are put into place to examine innovative reimbursement and care delivery models that highlight primary care services value and offer in improvement in the patient care coordination.

There are many aspects of a society that most individuals value and believe will always be around like government officials, police workers, firefighters and even physicians; what if there would be a shortage of one of these occupations? Most people would not believe this could happen, but unfortunately, this is reality for health professionals. In 2000 many experts thought the shortage was more of a myth, that there would be a surplus of specialists. At the time when the study was conduct the parameters that were used started from the 1920’s which were the different tasks a physician did throughout the day along with the time it took to complete these tasked that could be seen as “good” patient care. Later on experts decided to