News in brief - Jan. 17, 2000

PRN files to organize first bargaining unit - Nurse practitioners see same results as doctors

PRN files to organize first bargaining unit

Detroit -- Responding to requests from doctors employed by the Wellness Plan, an HMO serving the urban core of Detroit, Physicians for Responsible Negotiation filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board late last month seeking to serve as a collective bargaining agent for the group.

The Wellness Plan, which employs approximately 30 physicians, would be the first local bargaining unit to be represented by PRN, a national negotiating unit founded by the AMA last year.

"Inner-city patients on Medicaid represent the most vulnerable patient group in the nation," said Susan Hershberg Adelman, MD, a pediatric surgeon from Southfield, Mich., who serves as PRN's president. "The doctors of Wellness Plan have asked us to help them maintain their ability to take care of their patients."

Nurse practitioners see same results as doctors

Chicago -- Primary care patients had similar short-term health outcomes whether treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner, according to a study in the Jan. 5 Journal of the American Medical Association. The study compared outcomes for 1,316 patients assigned to nurse practitioners or physicians for primary care follow-up and ongoing care.

The researchers said this was the first time physicians and nurse practitioners had been studied in comparable practices using a randomized design. The study was conducted in an ambulatory care setting in which the two professional groups had the same authority, prescribing ability, responsibilities, productivity and administrative requirements.

An editorial in the same issue of JAMA says these results do not necessarily apply to other patient populations or to long-term primary care. The short duration of the study limits its ability to test a health professional's competence across the broad spectrum of primary health care. In addition, the patients were not broadly representative.

Nevertheless, the editorial called the study "the most ambitious and well-executed comparison of nurse practitioners and physicians."