• Physicians have options for delegating responsibilities.physicians desk image by Keith Frith from Fotolia.com
  
  Physicians are people with a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders. Besides being responsible for peoples' health, they often supervise clinical staff, run practices and handle numerous calls and emails every day. It's easy to see how a physician can become overwhelmed or feel that he can't get to everything every day. Good business practice for a manager or executive is to delegate. Although physicians can't delegate just anything, there are ways they can enlist help and alleviate some portion their own stress.
  
  

Physicians' Assistants

• A physician's assistant: the name says it all. PAs are trained and licensed to do some of the more standard and routine medical care found in a primary care or clinic setting. While performing surgical acts and coming to independent diagnoses aren't permissible for PAs in most states, physicians can have PAs seeing patients independently of them, especially for common ailments. PAs not only take some of the work away from the physician, but can make a practice more profitable.
  
  Most states, including Maryland, require a supervision agreement or contract between doctor and PA which is reviewed and approved by the state medical board. Physicians need to check their state regulations on PAs and their scope of practice.
  
  

Nurses and Nurse Practitioners

• In all medical settings, nurses are the natural delegates of physicians. Doctors leave orders and instructions to nurses on how to provide ongoing care for patients. While scopes of practice vary by state, nurses can perform a large number of interventions and assessments. More importantly, if a doctor trusts a nurse's skills and ability she may come to rely on a nurse's judgement in performing her own evaluation of a patient's condition.
  
  Nurse practitioners have a broader scope than traditional nurses and, much like a physician's assistant, may perform basic exams and write certain prescriptions independently. NPs are ultimately under the supervision and review of a physician who can keep an eye on patients via discussion with the NP or through chart reviews. Regulations on nurse practitioners and their scopes of practice vary by state.
  
  

Office Staff

• A medical practice is a business, and a great physician isn't always a great businessperson or manager. Therefore, many physicians hire competent office staff to make the business run smoother. A physician may turn to a strong nurse to lead an office, but in many practices office managers come from outside the medical disciplines. Scheduling, billing, coding, customer service and schedule management can all be delegated to office staff.