Quality of Care Provided by Physician's Extenders in Air Force Primary Medicine Clinics.
Abstract
Evaluates the quality of care of physician's extenders (23 physician's assistants and 7 primary care nurse practitioners) in Air Force primary medicine clinics, as part of an evaluation of PEs assuming care formerly provided by physicians. Physician's assistants performed at least as well as MDs on 25 out of 28 nonredundant process-of-care criteria. Nurse practitioners met the MD standard on 14 of 19 criteria. No major differences were found in PEs' use of ancillary services (laboratory and x-ray) or orders for further care when controlling for case-mix. As expected, PEs consulted MDs infrequently, but more often for serious complaints and at rates similar to those found in other PE studies. The study concludes that the Air Force can deliver the same quality of care when PEs treat a sizeable proportion of patients formerly treated by MDs. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA082491
Entities
People
- David G. Jolly
- George A. Goldberg
Organizations
- RAND Corporation