BACKGROUND

Many physicians believe that advanced practice clinicians (APCs [nurse practitioners and physician assistants]) provide care of relatively lower value.

OBJECTIVE

To compare use of low-value services among U.S. APCs and physicians.

DESIGN

Service use after primary care visits was evaluated for 3 conditions after adjustment for patient and provider characteristics and year. Patients with guideline-based red flags were excluded and analyses stratified by office- versus hospital-based visits, acute versus nonacute presentations, and whether clinicians self-identified as the patient's primary care provider (PCP).

SETTING

National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), 1997 to 2011.

PATIENTS

Patients presenting with upper respiratory infections (URIs), back pain, or headache.

MEASUREMENTS

Use of guideline-discordant antibiotics (for URIs), radiography (for URIs and back pain), computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (for headache and back pain), and referrals to other physicians (for all 3 conditions).

RESULTS

12 170 physician and 473 APC office-based visits and 13 359 physician and 2947 APC hospital-based visits were identified. Although office-based clinicians saw similar patients, hospital-based APCs saw younger patients (mean age, 42.6 vs. 45.0 years; P < 0.001), and practiced in urban settings less frequently (49.7% vs. 81.7% of visits; P < 0.001) than hospital-based physicians. Unadjusted and adjusted results revealed that APCs ordered antibiotics, CT or MRI, radiography, and referrals as often as physicians in both settings. Stratification suggested that self-identified PCP APCs ordered more services than PCP physicians in the hospital-based setting.

LIMITATION

NHAMCS reflects hospital-based APC care; NAMCS samples physician practices and likely underrepresents office-based APCs.

CONCLUSION

APCs and physicians provided an equivalent amount of low-value health services, dispelling physicians' perceptions that APCs provide lower-value care than physicians for these common conditions.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE

U.S. Health Services and Research Administration, Ryoichi Sasakawa Fellowship Fund, and National Institutes of Health.