What kinds of conditions can PAs treat, and what situations require physician care?
A. The scope of the PA’s work corresponds to the supervising physician’s practice. In general, a physician assistant and the supervising physician will see patients with the same kinds of illnesses. The cases handled by physicians are generally the more complicated medical cases or those that require care that is not a routine part of the PA’s scope of work. Supervising physicians determine which patients and what kinds of illnesses they want PAs to treat. Close consultation between the patient, PA, and physician is done for unusual or hard to manage illnesses. Physician assistants are taught to know when it is appropriate to have the patient seen by the physician. It is an important part of PA training.
