Improving Provider Experience and Increasing Patient Access Through Nurse Practitioner-Physician Primary Care Teams

Team-based care may address burnout in primary care; few studies have examined the impact of nurse practitioner-physician (NP-MD) teams on provider burnout. This article describes a model of NP-MD care teams in an urban safety-net primary care practice. Average time to third next available appointment with a team provider (either NP or MD) decreased by nearly 20 days after implementation of the model. In total, 79% of MDs reported that the model was very or extremely helpful in reducing the burden of work between visits and 100% of NPs reported that they were very or extremely satisfied with their current job.