Physician assistants have growing role in physician offices: national survey findings.

More physician assistants are working in solo and group medical practices, continuing a trend toward greater collaboration with physicians in the office setting.

Nearly 43% of physician assistants (PAs) work in a physician's office, up from about 40% in 2002, according to the 2003 annual census of PAs conducted by the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA).

More than 30% of PAs reported working in a group practice setting, and 13% work with a solo practice physician, according to the survey. More than 20,000 PAs--about 45% of all PAs in clinical practice--completed the survey.

"These data indicate that we will see increasing roles for the profession of physician assistants in the years ahead, not only in hospitals, but increasingly in specialized and general-practice medical offices," said Steve Crane, Ph.D., executive vice president and CEO of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

About 44% of PAs work in one of the primary care fields, with 31% working in family or general practice, 8% in general internal medicine, 3% in ob.gyn., and 3% in pediatrics. This is a slight decrease from the 2002 figure for total percentage of PAs working in primary care settings.

Approximately 10% of PAs reported working in subspecialties of internal medicine, which could represent a trend toward more specialty care being provided by PAs, according to the AAPA.

These figures don't come as a surprise to Dr. David Edmonds, a family physician in group practice in Salem, Ore. PAs are able to help handle a large volume of patients, they are cost effective, and they provide quality care, Dr. Edmonds said.