[Healthcare in Germany: Including Physician Assistants into the Team of Physicians]. / Gesundheitsversorgung in Deutschland durch Mitarbeit von Physician Assistants im ärztlichen Team.

BACKGROUND: Physicians in Germany are overburdened. Delegation of tasks to Physician Assistants (PA) is one way of providing relief. Although PA work in Germany since 2012, few data are available. We studied advantages and disadvantages from those physicians point of view, who cooperate with PA since years, as well as working conditions, satisfaction and duration of work processes of PA. METHOD: Semi-quantitative cross-sectional survey on a course of PA graduates and the physicians they work with since three years. Retrospective analysis of patients´ waiting time and duration of stay in an emergency department. RESULTS: Physicians were very satisfied with PA and reported a high degree of relief from workload. PA were highly satisfied with their job. Processing time in the emergency department was not longer when a PA was involved in patient care. CONCLUSION: Physicians are satisfied with PA as they are relieved from a heavy workload. More data on effectiveness and efficiency of PA in Germany are needed.