Is Patient loyalty in primary care cruising towards use of NPs and PAs?

Patient loyalty in medical offices today is hanging on by a thread some experts and Physicians are saying. Most primary care and family medical offices are struggling to modernize their practice amidst shrinking reimbursement, increasing overhead and administrative hassles. That's translating to no improvements in the primary care and family medicine customer service experience. Add to that there are more and more hoops Patients need to jump through as well and Patients are fed up with that and willing to try something and someone new. The question is what will primary care and family medicine look like for our grandkids, or even our kids in 15-years? I'm not optimistic. Will more Patients gravitate to using NPs and PAs in the years ahead? The numbers, the rhetoric and even some experts the past couple of years predict the wind is blowing in that direction. 

 

Wolters Kluwer writes[2] ... NP (including nurse anesthetists and midwives) employment is forecasted to grow at a rate of 45% from now until 2030 while PA employment is expected to grow at a rate of 31%. Both rates are much higher than the average growth rate of 0.7% for all occupations predicted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

According to Sanjula Jain, Ph.D., who in 2021 wrote an article entitled "Patients are Consumers, and Consumers are not Loyal: An Overview of Loyalty in Healthcare vs. Other Industries" he writes ... Consumers are inherently “splitters”, even in healthcare. For providers seeking to build stronger relationships with consumers in their markets, the question then becomes, even if an individual interacted with your brand for a single visit and reported a great experience (e.g., HCAPHS), are they still seeking out other brands for similar services?[1]

 

“Patient Burnout … is a cancer growing in our healthcare culture that few have the courage or want to treat with hospitality and customer service. Patient burnout plagues our communities. We don’t look forward to seeing a Doctor or even know the medical staff by name like we used to. If I have to go to a Doctor’s office where he/she has to look at my medical chart every time I visit the practice, that’s not okay with me. Instead, we as Patients put on an invisible suit of armor and we prepare for a metaphorical battle about our rights, the cost, our time and more. In the majority of medical office environments you and I may visit today or tomorrow, there is rarely anyone or anything advocating for the Patient other than the Doctor. And that is unremarkable. I want a Doctor [and culture] that is remarkable and that would bring my family and I back again and again. I want to brag about my Doctor to others. I want my Doctor’s office to be as inviting to my family and I as having a conversation with an old friend in our living room. Today, that is rare. I understand that isn’t everyone’s expectation of their Doctor’s office and that’s okay. But for those in healthcare that would rather stand in the back of a room with their arms crossed or sit behind a keyboard and dissect the premise of patient burnout and targeted solutions your peers are trying to use to treat this common complaint and want to do something about it and then say they're elitist or ‘this is just not how we’ve always done it’, they miss the point and bury the pronouncement of the cure to patient burnout which is ... we need more medical environments and entrepreneurial Physicians that also desire to curate healthy staff cultures and each day wake up and try to work in a medical office model that marries the Hippocratic Oath to the Golden Rule. It just so happens that some in Concierge Medicine are already doing that and I think that is remarkable and moreover, worth remarking to others about.” ~Editor, Concierge Medicine Today

 

SOURCES

1. Patients are Consumers, and Consumers are not Loyal: An Overview of Loyalty in Healthcare vs. Other Industries; June 6, 2021; By Sanjula Jain, Ph.D.; https://www.trillianthealth.com/insights/the-compass/patients-are-consumers-and-consumers-are-not-loyal
2. Wolters Kluwer; JANUARY 06, 2020 NPs and PAs by the numbers: the data behind America’s frontline healthcare providers; https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/nps-and-pas-by-the-numbers-the-data-behind-americas-frontline-healthcare-providers

 

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