Physician Assistant as an Expert Witness in a Medical Malpractice Case  

The number of physician assistants (PAs) practicing in the United States is rapidly increasing each year. They are employed in all settings including solo or group practices, hospitals, nursing homes, correctional facilities, and rural and inner city clinics. They practice in all clinical fields from pediatrics to geriatrics, and their roles within the medical profession are expanding at a rapid rate.

When attorneys use PAs as expert witnesses in medical malpractice cases, there seems to be a great deal of confusion on the part of counsel as to the PA's role in the medical community. Some attorneys do not seem to know how to address them in court, while others minimize their status by relegating their role to that of a medical assistant who takes blood pressures and calls in prescriptions.

In reality, PAs are licensed, registered, or certified to practice in every state. Although state laws differ, the PAs are generally authorized to practice medicine under the supervision of a licensed physician. They examine and treat patients within the laws of their state, and in more than half of the states, PAs are allowed to prescribe medications.

PAs see patients on a daily basis. Their duties range from assisting in surgery, reducing fractures, apply casts, performing cardiac stress tests, making hospital rounds, and carrying out numerous other functions previously performed only by physicians.

A PA who serves as an expert witness has an ethical responsibility to the medical profession. It is the obligation of the medical expert PA to be thorough and objective and to base his or her opinion on sound professional knowledge. The PA, like the expert physician, should make a clear distinction between an unavoidable medical complication that is not the result of negligence and medical malpractice.

In determining whether a particular PA would be a good expert witness in a medical malpractice action, the following questions should be answered in the affirmative:

• Is the PA certified by the National Commission on the Certification of PAs and currently licensed to practice without restriction?
  
• Is the PA a member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants as well as his or her state physician assistant organization?
  
• Does the PA have experience and knowledge in the area in which he or she has been asked to render a professional opinion?
  
• Does the PA have a clear understanding of "standard of care?"
  
• Has the PA previously evaluated cases for both defense and plaintiff counsel?
  
• Does the PA have a clear understanding of his or her own profession, its philosophy, and its ethics?

It is likely that as the use of PAs increases in the medical community, so will the use of PAs as expert witnesses in medical malpractice cases.

Copyright 2007 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.