What the heck is a practice extender?

Have you heard the term physician extender (or practice extender) but didn’t really understand what it meant. 🙋‍♀️ Or someone’s tried to explain but it’s still unclear?

Your confusion is warranted.

Some Googling reveals that “physician extender” means a lot of different things and varies widely between places.

The KISS (keep it simple st*pid) version: physician extenders are various health care professionals doing roles that would traditionally be considered part of the “physician’s” job. Often, but not always, under the supervision of a physician.

In some places, physician extenders are residents and fellows. In others, physicians assistants, medical assistants and nurse practitioners among others are considered physician extenders. And yet in others, this can be nurses who take on specialized aspect of patient care such as wound care, diabetes care nurse, etc.

Jargon out of the way – how can practice extenders apply to you?

Imagine having someone who helps you complete your task list. Like working with a really good senior resident, this is someone who knows exactly what and how you want things done every. single. time. 🤩

They help get tasks off your never-ending to do list and out of your brain.

For any Dr. Glaucomflecken fans you’ve already seen this person in action (well, a version of this person). If you’ve not yet experienced Jonathon and all his wonders – take a peak:

Now – imagine having a Jonathon. How awesome and life changing could that be? (I mean, just watch the videos and see the Ophthalmologist’s life.)

Before I get too far ahead of myself.

To limit confusion around “physician extender”, going forward we’ll be using “practice extender”. For the purpose of this site this is anyone who helps you get your tasks and work done. Tasks on your list either partially or completely checked off.

(Note, there is one paper that uses the term “practice-extender teams” referring to a nurse led team…we’re not talking about that).

Before you brush off the idea completely because images of an employee with a full-time salary pop into your head – hang on one sec.

This person can be full-time but they can also be someone who helps with specific tasks on a very part time basis (like a few hours per week).

The potential is almost limitless. This person could:

• help you with the behind-the-scenes work (read: your usual after hours) without seeing patients directly
  • In my case prepping all of my consult and follow up notes for the week using my templates
• work with you certain days to help with specific clinical tasks/types of cases
• be full time and have a variety of roles in your practice

See the vision? Getting intrigued…maybe even a ‘lil excited?

This person is on your team. And boy – I didn’t understand the value of this until I started working with a nurse in my practice.

You still hold the overall responsibility, but you have a teammate who is working with you to the goal: get the work done and get back to your life.

Do you know what else does this teammate does? Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) says it best: with different perspectives and fresh eyes, they can help come up with even more ideas to run your practice better – more than if you try and do it all on you own. Hello win-win.

Not sure if your finances can swing hiring a part- or full-time employee? Knowing your average hourly rate is really helpful to help decide which and how many tasks make sense to completely or partially off-load while still keeping the bottom line in mind.

To finish off today – ask yourself, what are the tasks always on your to do list, keeping you late or taking up your evenings – could a practice extender help you get these finished?