According to a report by The Medicus Firm, physician assistants are coming close to primary care physicians as the health professional most in need at U.S. hospitals and health systems, as reported by Forbes.
Here are five insights:
1. The Medicus Firm is a national physician staffing and placement firm.
2. The most frequently placed medical care provider has long been primary care physicians like family physicians and internists as well as hospitalists, who are generally trained in internal medicine and work exclusively inside a hospital.
3. In their 2016 summary, Medicus reported the three most-placed providers were family medicine, internal medicine and hospitalist. Physician assistants came in fourth place.
4. Physician assistants overtook pediatricians in 2014 for fifth place and weren't even in the top five in 2013, falling behind family medicine, hospitals, gastroenterology and orthopedic surgery.
5. As more Americans have the ability to pay for medical care due to health benefits under the ACA, a national physician shortage has worsened, but it has helped the physician assistant profession.