Abstract
As healthcare organizations look for ways to reduce costs and improve quality, many rely increasingly on allied healthcare professionals and, in particular, medical assistants (MAs) to supplement the work of physicians and other health professionals. MAs usually work in primary care, where they often play important roles on healthcare teams. Drawing on an empirical study of a large, multispecialty delivery system engaged in reconfiguration of primary care, we found that using MAs as flow managers required overcoming several challenges. These included entrenched social and occupational hierarchies between physicians and MAs, a lack of adequate training and mentorship, and difficulty attracting and retaining talented MAs. We offer several recommendations for healthcare organizations interested in using MAs as flow managers in their practices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 181-191 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of Healthcare Management |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2016 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2016 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
Funding
The research reported in this article was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under contract HHSA2902010000221, Task Order 2. The views expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent any U.S. government agency or any institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Caroline P. Gray, PhD, research sociologist, Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, Mountain View, California; Michael I. Harrison, PhD, senior social scientist, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, Maryland; and Dorothy Hung, PhD, assistant scientist, Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Medical Foundation Research Institute | |
| Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality | HHSA2902010000221 |
| Palo Alto Medical Foundation |
