Different Title, Same Dedicated Care

Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) are becoming a more common part of many primary care offices and can play a key role in the health care you receive. 

Understanding who these providers are and the type of care they can provide to patients is an important part of being an informed member of your health care team.

APPs are health care professionals who can provide many of the same services as MDs, medical doctors, and DOs, doctors of osteopathic medicine.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) have completed either a master’s program or a post-graduate program, according to Premier Physician Network (PPN) physicians.

Both NPs and PAs are licensed through state licensing boards. Some NPs and PAs have a specialized field of study, such as family medicine or surgical assisting. 

APPs focus on promoting healthy lifestyle choices, disease prevention, and patient education.

APPs are important members of your health care team that work with physicians. They can: 

• Counseling on preventive care
• Counseling patients on healthy lifestyles
• Creating treatment plans
• Diagnosing and treating diseases and other conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, infections and injuries
• Doing physical or annual wellness exams
• Educating patients about disease prevention 
• Making referrals
• Managing chronic health conditions
• Ordering and interpreting medical tests
• Ordering tests and procedures, including lab work and X-rays
• Performing some procedures 
• Taking a patient’s medical history
• Writing prescriptions

By adding PAs and NPs, medical practices within Premier Physician Network are able to expand access to care with added convenience to patients. These additional members of a patient’s health care team mean that patients spend less time in the waiting room, lower health care costs and have increased satisfaction, according to PPN physicians.

For more information about Advanced Practice Providers, talk with your doctor or find a health care provider.