Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995                   TAG: 9502150026
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: G-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEER ACCEPTANCE OF PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS CATCHES UP WITH TIMES

The jobs that were available were mostly in hospitals and gotten through a mentor. Otherwise, physician assistants found work with Veterans' hospitals, Indian hospitals or in public health clinics, Hickey said.

An exception was in the state of North Carolina where the specialty was better known because Duke University has had a physician assistant course of study for 30 years.

These days, it's different, said Hickey, who works in occupational medicine at the Lewis-Gale Valley View Clinic. Everywhere he turns, there are opportunities for his skills.

Hospitals and clinics are clamoring for physician assistants as they are forced to deliver care at lower costs. Although a supervising doctor has to be within 30 minutes of where a physician assistant is working, the PA can do routine physicals, sew up superficial wounds, and treat hypertension and infections.

A PA's mission, Hickey said, is to free up a physician so he or she has more time for the more complicated cases. While they function a lot like doctors, physician assistants cost far less.

The average physician assistant's salary nationally is $56,000 annually. Some make six-figure incomes, Hickey said.

Hickey worries, though, that the push to get more physician assistants trained might dilute the quality of candidates for the profession. Two schools are starting up in Virginia, including one at Roanoke's College of Health Sciences.

"You add two baseball teams and you water down the sport," he said.