de Lusignan, S; McGovern, AP; Tahir, MA; Hassan, S; Jones, S; Halter, M; Joly, L; Drennan, VM
(2016)
Physician Associate and General Practitioner Consultations: A Comparative Observational Video Study.
PLoS One, 11 (8).
e0160902.
ISSN 1932-6203
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160902
SGUL Authors: Drennan, Vari MacDougal
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Physician associates, known internationally as physician assistants, are a mid-level practitioner, well established in the United States of America but new to the United Kingdom. A small number work in primary care under the supervision of general practitioners, where they most commonly see patients requesting same day appointments for new problems. As an adjunct to larger study, we investigated the quality of the patient consultation of physician associates in comparison to that of general practitioners. METHOD: We conducted a comparative observational study using video recordings of consultations by volunteer physician associates and general practitioners with consenting patients in single surgery sessions. Recordings were assessed by experienced general practitioners, blinded to the type of the consulting practitioner, using the Leicester Assessment Package. Assessors were asked to comment on the safety of the recorded consultations and to attempt to identify the type of practitioner. Ratings were compared across practitioner type, alongside the number of presenting complaints discussed in each consultation and the number of these which were acute, minor, or regarding a chronic condition. RESULTS: We assessed 62 consultations (41 general practitioner and 21 physician associates) from five general practitioners and four physician associates. All consultations were assessed as safe; but general practitioners were rated higher than PAs in all elements of consultation. The general practitioners were more likely than physician associates to see people with multiple presenting complaints (p<0.0001) and with chronic disease related complaints (p = 0.008). Assessors correctly identified general practitioner consultations but not physician associates. The Leicester Assessment Package had limited inter-rater and intra-rater reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The physician associate consultations were with a less complex patient group. They were judged as competent and safe, although general practitioner consultations, unsurprisingly, were rated as more competent. Physician associates offer a complementary addition to the medical workforce in general practice.
Item Type: |
Article
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Additional Information: |
© 2016 de Lusignan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: |
Female, General Practitioners, Humans, Male, Physician Assistants, Physician-Patient Relations, Primary Health Care, Referral and Consultation, Reproducibility of Results, United Kingdom, Video Recording, General Science & Technology, MD Multidisciplinary |
Journal or Publication Title: |
PLoS One |
ISSN: |
1932-6203 |
Language: |
eng |
Dates: |
Date | Event |
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25 August 2016 | Published | 20 June 2016 | Accepted |
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Publisher License: |
Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 |
Projects: |
Project ID | Funder | Funder ID |
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09/1801/1066 | Department of Health | UNSPECIFIED |
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PubMed ID: |
27560179 |
Web of Science ID: |
WOS:000382258600019 |
![](http://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/2745237/img/27842) |
Go to PubMed abstract |
URI: |
https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/109436 |
Publisher's version: |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160902 |
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