Maine PA to Supervise MD/DO Hospitalists at VA: Implications for Pain?

[drusso]

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UNE alum is new chief of Hospitalist Service at Maine VA Medical Center

The new chief of the Hospitalist Service at the Maine Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center at Togus is a graduate of the University of New England’s Master of Science in Physician Assistant (M.S.P.A.) program, the only such program in Maine. He is also the first physician assistant in the Maine...

www.une.edu

"As the chief of the Hospitalist Service, Crowder is responsible for overseeing 13 physicians and nine PAs who provide inpatient care for Maine veterans. His group staffs the 10-bed intensive care unit, a 28-bed medical-surgery unit, and provides the medical care for a 24-hour acute inpatient psychiatric ward. His group also provides night and weekend medical coverage to a 60-bed nursing home."

 

[lobelsteve]

Veterans should complain to congressmen. Would not happen in private sector. Except in Oregon.

 

[geauxg8rs]

Veterans should complain to congressmen. Would not happen in private sector. Except in Oregon.

So would not happen in the US

 

[hyperalgesia]

I think the real issue is the long structural chain of command on top of the physician in the first place.

In this case the PA is "supervising" docs, and he is supervised by a doc, (the chief of staff), who is supervised by the medical center director, who is an "executive" with zero medical training.

In this case, "supervisor" is just a bureaucratic placeholder who will look at productivity metrics that ensure the hive is functioning, that people show up to work on time, that Joint Commission mandates are fulfilled, that vacation time is approved, etc.

Keeping in mind that you would be supervised by someone else, would you rather do this job or let the PA do it?

 

[deleted472101]

I would be laughed at if I said my superior was a PA regardless of his or her qualifications.