Physician Assistant Data

The concept of the Physician Assistant gained its inspiration from 17th century Europe where feldshers were used in the 17th century Russian Army. In the 1960s, China employed over 1.3 million “barefoot doctors” to improve delivery of health care, especially in rural areas. Not until the mid 1960s did the U.S. begin to use Physician…

Nurse-Staffing Levels and the Quality of Care in Hospitals

Most people intuitively believe that having more nurses on staff at a hospital improves health outcomes. After reading Money Magazine‘s report that an average RN earns approximately $70,000 per year, relying on ‘intuition’ may not be the most appropriate manner to judge a nurse’s cost effectiveness. Do health outcomes really improve to justify this cost?…

Physician Assistant Timeline

Economists typically believe that there is too much regulation in the medical field. Due to problems of asymetric information in determining doctor quality, economists believe there is a role for certification and licensure, but these requirements are currently too strict. For instance, many routine procedures could be preformed by a Nonphysician Clinician (NPC) such as…

Using Physician Assistants: A Wise Tradeoff?

The use nonphysician clinicians (NPCs) in the provision of medical care has grown over the years. Although physicians still dominate the medical field, there were over 66,000 Physician Assistants in the United States in 2005. Before Physician Assistants (PAs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs) were licensed, physicians were the only individuals permitted by law to perform…