Commentaries on health services research

Abstract

Efforts to deliver healthcare take shape in different ways in different countries. The universal observation is that when physicians are scarce, nurse and physician assistant (PA) equivalents emerge to fi ll the vacuum. In Papua New Guinea, the health extension offi cer serves this function. The authors are PA educators who are observers of PA-like movements globally. Their observations in this report serve as a template for health and social researchers to do likewise. The article describes the education and deployment of health extension offi cers.1 At times Americans and others have amplifi ed their training. The result has been an impressive health extension offi cer role in rural healthcare, where most of the Papua New Guinea population resides. Through the efforts of the Pedersens and others, human resources are being strategically strengthened. Promotion of rural health services is at the heart of this effort and is advanced in this article as worthwhile goals to improve the wellbeing of the global community.2 need to do some simple math. The average acute care hospital stay is $7,000/day in Canada ($5,273 in US dollars).2 By this measure, Decloe saved her hospital more than $25,000 ($18,831 US) per patient—a whopping $23 million ($17.3 million US) per year. And that’s before you ask patients if they prefer waiting less and going home earlier. Ontario needs permanent PA funding and PA registration—it makes a lot of cents!