More emergency departments are employing mid-level providers like nurse practitioners and physician assistants to assist with fast-track cases.
This doctor runs the numbers, and finds that in his hospital’s case, mid-levels add about $100 an hour, 16 hours a day, 365 days a year.
It comes with a price however, in the form of potential increased liability. “My name is at the bottom of thousands of charts of patients I never saw,” says the physician blogging at Ten out of Ten, “and that still makes me somewhat uncomfortable to be honest.”