The physician assistant is a title applied to individuals who assume at least a portion of physicians' traditional duties. This paper develops a production function methodology to estimate the potential contribution of physician assistants in the delivery of medical care. This methodology is applied to a paradigm delivery mode, an urban health center. Following upon a discussion of the possibilities for delegation and the efficient assignment of medical tasks to physician assistants, a numerical production function is estimated for physicians and physician assistants working together. When taking on his most productive assignments, it is found, a physician assistant can replace half of a full-time physician

Richard Zeckhauser and Michael Eliastam

Journal of Human Resources, 1974, vol. 9, issue 1, 95-116

Date: 1974
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/145047
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:9:y:1974:i:1:p:95-116

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().