Nurse Practitioners and the Allocation of Resources

In my last post, I made a rather conclusory (and parenthetical) statement regarding the utilization of nurse practitioners in retail health clinics. I wrote:

Retail health clinics have sprouted up across America as of late. They can be found in grocery stores and pharmacies, are open nights and weekends, often (wisely) utilize the services of nurse practitioners for minor ailments and feature a clearly listed schedule of fees.

Today I’ll clarify. The view espoused is largely based upon simple resource allocation theory: that one utilizes resources effectively by matching the need with the skill; that to underutilize is to engage in waste, and, given demand and a shortage of doctors, when a physician is attending to minor ailments, and charging physician rates to do so, society has experienced a net loss.

The trick of course is in a) making sure that there is a sufficient supply of well trained nurses (you may wish to take a look at this interesting RWJF blog from Susan Hasmiller, “projected shortage of 500,000 nurses by 2020,” despite the present difficulty of some nurses to find work ); and b) assuring that the need of the client is matched with the appropriate level of skill: that the service provider is capable.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “NPs are registered nurses (RNs) who are prepared, through advanced education and clinical training, to provide preventive and acute health-care services to individuals of all ages. Today, most NPs complete graduate-level education that leads to a master’s degree. They work independently and collaboratively on the health-care team.”

As to the capability of nurse practitioners, this quote (n. 14) from William M. Sage, Out of the Box: The Future of Retail Medical Clinics, Harvard Law And Policy Review Online (2009), is worth noting:

Debate over the relative merits of primary care from nurse practitioners and from physicians is purely rhetorical. A review of 11 trials and 23 observational studies in primary care settings concluded that “[q]uality of care was in some ways better for nurse practitioner consultations.” Sue Horrocks et al., Systematic Review of Whether Nurse Practitioners Working in Primary Care Can Provide Equivalent Care to Doctors, 324 BRIT. MED. J. 819, 819 (2002). See also Linda H. Aiken, Achieving an Interdisciplinary Workforce in Health Care, 348 NEW ENG. J. MED. 164 (2003) (editorial describing the quality of non-physician professionals); Mary O. Mundiger et al., Primary Care Outcomes in Patients Treated by Nurse Practitioners or Physicians: A Randomized Trial, 283 JAMA 59 (2000) (demonstrating equivalent outcomes).