Midlevel providers in a Level I trauma service: experience at Wesley Medical Center.

Background: Changes in the health care system have led to reduced availability of surgical residents to function as house officers in teaching hospitals. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess the level of satisfaction of patients, physicians and nurses, and ancillary providers with the care provided by the midlevel providers (MLPs) who are utilized as house officers in a Level I trauma service. This type of care model is unusual because the trauma service no longer utilizes surgical residents to provide trauma coverage.

Examining attitudes of specialist physicians regarding physician assistant referrals.

Referral of a patient from a primary care provider to a referral specialist physician for consultation is an important link in the continuum of patient care. Although the relationship between the physician assistant (PA) and supervising physician has been studied extensively, the effectiveness of the relationship between the primary care PA and the referral specialist physician is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of the referral specialist physician toward direct referral of patients from primary care PAs.