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Physician assistants, nurse practitioners may play big role in future of primary care

NOT LIABLE: Bryant University Physician Assistant Program founder and Director Robert Jay Amrien, left, a panelist at the PBN Fall Health Care Summit, says a new law declaring that a physician assistant may be considered a primary care provider means a physician would not be considered liable for the actions of a physician assistant. Next to Amrien, from left, are panelists Maria Ducharme, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of patient care services at The Miriam Hospital; Care New England CEO Dr. James E. Fanale; and James Rajotte, chief of the Center for Health Promotion in the Division of Community Health and Equity at the R.I. Department of Health. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI
NOT LIABLE: Bryant University Physician Assistant Program founder and Director Robert Jay Amrien, left, a panelist at the PBN Fall Health Care Summit, says a new law declaring that a physician assistant may be considered a primary care provider means a physician would not be considered liable for the actions of a physician assistant. Next to Amrien, from left, are panelists Maria Ducharme, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of patient care services at The Miriam Hospital; Care New England CEO Dr. James E. Fanale; and James Rajotte, chief of the Center for Health Promotion in the Division of Community Health and Equity at the R.I. Department of Health. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI

Rhode Island is facing a shortage of primary care physicians, but increasing the roles of physician assistants and nurse practitioners might ease the problem, said panelists at the Providence Business News 2019 Health Care Summit. Robert Jay Amrien, founder and director of the physician assistant program at Bryant University, said patients are often discharged from

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