Survey of patient's attitudes towards physician assistant competency and friendliness

Abstract

A survey of patient's attitudes towards physician assistants was conducted during the spring of 1988. The 194 patients whose attitudes were analyzed were members of a 65,000 member staff model HMO in metropolitan Milwaukee who had visited one of that organization's physician assistants in their practice. The findings indicate that physician assistants are successful in demonstrating attitudes of friendliness and competency to all their patients, regardless of the patient's age, sex, race, occupation, educational level, or number of visits to a particular health center. In addition, patients have diminished perceptions of physician assistants' friendliness when the number of visits by the patient range from 6 to 10 visits. The results indicate that when a patient's health care is being managed by a team of primary care specialists (i. e., a team of physicians and physician assistants) there is an optimum time that the role of the physician assistant should be explained to the patient. The patient's care is best when the triangle of allegiance between the doctor, the physician assistant, and the patient is cultivated with good education about the roles of each.