Tag: community health

Barton Associates’ Locum Hero: Whitney Holmes, CNP

Earlier this year, Barton Associates announced the Locum Heroes campaign, with a focus on giving back to locum tenens providers who make a difference in their communities, near and far. In response, we received more than 100 nominations, each describing incredible stories of the ways that locum providers have spent their time on and between assignments. 

Whitney Holmes has been doing full-time locum work in underserved, low income, and refugee clinics since 2015, and dedicates her free time to medical mission efforts locally and internationally. As a Barton Associates Locum Hero, Ms. Holmes will receive a personal award of $2,500 and a donation of $2,500 will be given in her name to Ohio-based, Living Word Church’s food truck ministry.

Read Her Story

PAs, NPs, and Physicians Deliver Comparable Patient Care

Across the outcomes studied, results suggest that NP/PA care was largely comparable to PCP care in community health centers.

A recently published study in the journal Medical Care, researching patient care outcomes in community health centers, has found that physician assistants and nurse practitioners deliver comparable care, services, and referrals to those of primary care physicians.

Using data collected between 2006 and 2010, including the analysis of 23,704 patient visits to 1139 practitioners, researchers at The George Washington University School of Nursing found seven of the nine outcomes studied showed there was no statistically significant difference between PA/NP and PCP provided care. The two remaining outcomes studied showed that visits to PAs and NPs provided patients with more health education/counseling services than visits to physicians.

These findings should serve to reassure patients who see PAs and NPs in community health centers, the numbers of which have grown significantly due to the Affordable Care Act.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.