Disaster medicine and the role of the physician assistant
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Natural disasters disrupt the local healthcare structure impacting patients both acutely and chronically and, thus, requiring well-trained, organized and rapid healthcare response
teams to treat patients quickly and efficiently. Physician Assistants have become a
valuable member of the healthcare team and possess skills that are applicable to disaster
medicine. Unfortunately, inconsistencies in legislation and regulations of physician
assistants across states have caused confusion within the profession and have acted as
barriers for physician assistants to respond.
OBJECTIVE: This is a proposed survey project to evaluate the perceived impact of state physician
assistant disaster medicine legislation on access to care, and team communication and
efficiency. This study hypothesizes that state legislation that allows temporary suspension
of supervision requirements, out-of-state provider provisions, and liability coverage
provide better access to care and improved team communication and efficiency.
METHODS: The survey project consists of a multi-phase process for validating and then distributing a
survey to post-disaster responders to evaluate access to care, team communication and
efficiency and physician assistant practice effectiveness. The project will focus on Texas
and South Carolina as both are found in high-risk storm areas while having differing laws
around physician assistant disaster response with Texas having more conducive
legislation to seamless physician assistant disaster response. The survey responses will
generate specific indexes evaluating access to healthcare, team communication and
efficiency and physician assistant practice effectiveness. These indexes will then be
analyzed using two-tailed, independent samples t-tests to evaluate the hypothesis that a
friendlier legislative climate for physician assistant responders yields improved clinical care.
CONCLUSION: Natural disasters are an inevitable and unfortunate scenario that requires action by
healthcare responders to avoid increased mortality and morbidity. Barriers to entry for
competent healthcare clinicians, such as trained physician assistants, should be eliminated
to enhance the disaster relief response. Specifically, supervisions requirements, out-ofstate
provisions and liability coverage should be adjusted to allow a seamless response
for physician assistants who are willing and able to respond. In doing so, there may be a
benefit to overall access to care and team communication and efficiency.