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According to the Health Care Cost Institute's (HCCI) new research brief, fewer patients are seeing their regular doctors, opting to see a physician assistant (PA) or nurse practitioner (NP) more often.
To analyze PCP utilization trends, analysts at HCCI assessed all claims from 2012 to 2016 from individuals younger than 65 with Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Humana and United Healthcare employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI).
Overall, there was a two percent reduction in 2012 to 2016 of all primary care physician office visits.
In the late 1950s through the early 1960s, there was much concern about not just the shortage of doctors, but also about the mal-distribution of doctors, specifically that the medically underserved and rural areas would not receive the proper healthcare desperately required in many U.S. communities.
To help with this, the first class of PAs was put together in 1965 by Duke University Medical Center's physician, Eugene A. Stead Jr. The PA concept was highly praised early on and in the early 1970s, gained federal acceptance and backing as a creative solution for the doctor shortage.
Today, there seems to be an increased need for NPs and PAs to deliver primary care services. Because of this, physician assistant scheduling software is needed more now than ever.
Benefits of Physician Scheduling Software
PA scheduling software offers various benefits, including:
1. Enhanced Patient Satisfaction
When you have empty shifts on your schedule, you end up with patients having to wait for physicians to see them and they don't receive the quality care they require and deserve. To keep your patients satisfied and properly cared for, you need to have your scheduled completely filled at all times.
2. Enables PAs the Ability to Request Time off
With emergency medicine scheduling software, your physician assistants can let you know what their availability is instantly online. It's now simpler for them to request days off, vacation days and confirm if they're available to work certain shifts prior to you even sitting down to fill the schedule out.
3. Provides Better Work-Life Balance for PAs
PAs work long hours on the job. Chaotic scheduling can make their shifts feel even longer. It can also cause discontent and unhappiness in their personal lives and on the job, providing distractions while they work.
Shift scheduling software can help keep scheduled hour or day rotations consistent to where the PAs can fit their personal lives in. Without this ability, you might experience a higher turnover rate than you expected among PAs.
4. Makes Schedule Changes Easier
Physician assistant scheduling software allows PAs, doctors and other staff the ability to offer, switch and accept shift changes without you having to be involved.
5. Provides Remote Schedule Access
Scheduling software automatically posts schedules online so your PAs will always have schedule access. It even provides instantaneous updates each time a change is made and notifies every one of these changes.
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