The financial impact of an athletic trainer working as a physician extender in orthopedic practice.

A thletic trainers (ATs) are routinely employed in hospitals and clinics including orthopedic, family, pediatric, physiatry, and sports medicine settings. ATs are highly educated healthcare specialists with an understanding of musculoskeletal injuries and have a unique ability to treat and manage the care of athletes and the active population. Clinically they assist physicians in effective patient flow through the appointment, evaluation, and treatment process. Utilizing an AT’s unique skill set, physicians are able to increse patient throughput, by providing quality services to more patients in the same period of time, thus increasing clinic revenue. Studies have shown increases in patient throughput of between 15% and 30% when ATs are used in the physician extender capacity (Table 1). ATs’ skills cross multiple extender roles (Table 2) within the physician practice. They are becoming more popular working as physician extenders and as part of a physician’s office staff.