Residency & Fellowship Publications

Pecha FQ, Bahnmaier LA, Hasty ML, Greene JJ

The development of postprofessional residency programs that provide specialized education and clinical experiences to prepare ATs to effectively function as orthopedic physician extenders has greatly facilitated physician acceptance of the role, which has dramatically increased the number of ATs working in the orthopedic clinical setting. Such residency programs provide ATs with experience in taking detailed patient histories, performing thorough patient exams, and presenting the findings to the attending physician for delivery of efficient and patient-centered care.

Previous studies have demonstrated that utilization of the residency-trained AT physician extender (AT-PE) has increased clinical efficiency (i.e., patient volume and revenue generation) and improved patient outcomes. Physician satisfaction with this approach to delivery of orthopedic clinical services has not been previously documented. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess physician satisfaction with the performance of residency-trained AT-PEs in the delivery of orthopedic clinical services.