In the fiscal fight over health care costs, pediatricians are on the chopping block. In hospitals and clinics across the country, pediatricians are being laid off in droves, leaving the clinical burden to mid-level providers, family physicians, and emergency room doctors. These decisions are being made by suits over scrubs, and they are putting patients at risk.
After residency, a physician has accrued a minimum of 20,000 or more hours of clinical experience, while a DNP only needs 1,000 patient contact hours to graduate. As healthcare reform focuses on cost containment, the notion of independent nurse practitioners resulting in lower healthcare spending overall should be revisited. While mid-level providers cost less on the front end; the care they deliver may ultimately cost more when all is said and done.