Primary Care Non-physician Clinicians in Delaware, 1998
Date
1999
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Center for Applied Demography & Survey Research
Abstract
Description
Non-physician clinicians have been described as falling into three categories.1 Those in the traditional group are nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives, and physician assistants. The alternative group includes chiropractors, naturopaths, and practitioners of acupuncture and herbal medicine. The final group, referred to as specialists includes optometrists, podiatrists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists. In 1998, the Division of Public Health began an effort to measure the number, type, and spatial distribution of non-physician clinicians (NPCs) who were delivering primary care in Delaware. To that end, the primary objective of this study is to determine how non-physician primary care providers were complementing primary care physicians and to understand how they impact the supply of primary care services.
Keywords
Primary care clinics