TY - JOUR AU - Fung, MD MSc. FRCPC, Donald AU - Caswell, Ph.D., Joseph AU - James, Tanya AU - Harman, MD, MSc, FRCPC , Gavan AU - Reed, MD PhD CCFP, Kerry AU - Conlon, Ph.D, Michael AU - Charette, Venessa PY - 2021/01/25 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The impact of adding a physician assistant to a rural community hospital intensive care unit: Adding a PA to a rural Community ICU JF - The Journal of Canada’s Physician Assistants JA - JCANPA VL - 2 IS - 6 SE - Original Research DO - 10.5203/jcanpa.v2i6.873 UR - https://ojs.lib.umanitoba.ca/index.php/jcpa/article/view/873 SP - p1-11 AB - <p>Physician Assistants (PAs) are being used to enhance service delivery in a variety of practice settings. This study investigated the impact of adding a physician assistant to an internist team covering a rural community hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in North East Ontario.&nbsp; Retrospective chart reviews and CIHI data extraction was done on a cohort of ICU patients prior to the hiring of a PA (no PA) and compared to a cohort of ICU patients who had received care from a PA during their ICU stay. Inverse probability of treatment propensity scores were applied to match a no PA cohort (n=136) to a PA cohort (n=132).&nbsp; Cohorts were matched to gender, age, comorbidity, and diagnostic groups. &nbsp;The use of a PA was associated with a trend towards lower mortality (42% vs 27%, p&lt;0.07) and no difference in readmission rates or resource intensity.&nbsp; Post PA patients had greater lengths of CCU and hospital stay (19 hrs, p&lt;0.002; 2 days, p&lt;0.002) and more complete admission notes (p&lt;0.003).&nbsp; Adding a PA was associated with greater CCU and hospital length of stay, more complete admission notes and a trend towards improved mortality. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> ER -