Quote:
Originally Posted by 13ball
Gonna have to agree with ikes on this. More nurse practitioners and PA's would be a cost saving measure that would not significantly affect the treatment of health care. I wouldn't be surprised if health outcomes improved because more people would have access. Keep in mind, these PAs and NPs and nurses would still be supervised by doctors and be able to refer patients immediately if they had any indication that the diagnosis wasn't routine. This is not people practicing medicine out of their garage.
The last crappy HMO I had I never saw a doctor once - just NP the whole time. That office sucked big time though. I had to wait over an hour every time I went, and call like 7 times just to get some x-ray results. While I'm waiting I get to hear the receptionist deal with irate patient after irate patient.
Anyway I'm not slamming the idea of NPs, just saying they are being used a lot for simple diagnosis currently.