A history of patients' perception and satisfaction with Physician Assistants in primary care
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Date
2016
Authors
Piotrowski, Steven
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Abstract
Background: There are greater than four million Canadians that are unable to find a family physician or access immediate care for minor health problems. One solution has been the introduction of Physician Assistants (PA). In order to integrate PAs successfully into the health care system they must provide a high quality of medical care and be accepted by patients. Therefore, this project will examine the history of patients’ perception and satisfaction towards PAs working in primary care. Methods: A review was performed from 1973 to 2015 using the databases of Ovid MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and PubMed. Key search terms included “physician assistants,” “primary health care,” and “patient satisfaction.” Additional information was obtained by manually searching through journals, Internet resources, and bibliographies of retrieved articles.
Results: A total of 9 papers were analyzed and reviewed. Patients are satisfied with primary care PAs and consider them a valuable member of the healthcare team. Physician Assistants are viewed as competent, intelligent, friendly, and responsible. No significant difference is observed regarding patient satisfaction and type of provider. Patient’s demographics have the potential to influence their perception of a PA. In addition, the greater number of visits a patient has with a PA, the greater their acceptance of the PA role. Conclusion: It has been demonstrated that patients’ are willing to be treated by primary care PAs and are satisfied with the health care they receive. Furthermore, the greater number of interactions an individual has with a PA the more willing they are to get treated for variety of conditions and are more open to PAs performing complex procedures.