Nurse practitioners--co-providers of health care.

What single program can a group practice institute to increase patient satisfaction, contain costs, improve provider accessibility, expand patient education and other services, increase market share, and most importantly, improve the overall quality of patient care? Expanding the role of nurses as co-providers of care can do all this and more for your group. The experience over the past eight years of a large multispecialty group in central Illinois offers many lessons in the successful integration of a nurse practitioner/clinician program into a group practice. Discussed in this thorough report are the scope of practice, benefits to patients and the organization, and identification of issues needing further resolution: legality, third-party reimbursement, income, distribution, and control of practice.