There are several ways you can schedule an appointment with your doctor’s APC.

My Health Online

If your doctor has an associated NP or PA and you’d like to schedule with them for the first time, go to “Schedule an Appointment” and select your doctor. Once you see their available visits, choose “Show Available Appointments for Other Providers” at the top. From there, you’ll be taken to a screen showing your doctor’s associated APC and their open timeslots.

After seeing an NP or PA, they can then be found in the “Your Care Team and Recent Providers” module. This means you can quickly and conveniently book to see them as you would with other providers.

Over the Phone

If you’d like to schedule with your doctor’s APC over the phone, you can call their office directly and request an appointment.

NPs and PAs offer similar types of care with comparable levels of education, with some having master’s-level, and in some cases, doctorate-level degrees. But there are differences in their training, specialty focus, certifications and licenses.

Nurse Practitioners

Nurse practitioners are trained using a nursing model. This means they focus on caring for the patient with steps defined in the nursing process, which are assessment, diagnosis, plan, implementation and evaluation. This process focuses on caring for the whole person: physical, emotional and mental.

NPs can specialize in offering care for specific types of patients. Many NPs work in acute, adult, family, neonatal, oncology, pediatric, or women’s health settings and in specialty care offices.

NPs require supervised clinical practice hours and the following certifications and licenses:

• National board certification
• State NP licensure and registration
• Graduate nursing education
• RN license
• Bachelor’s degree in nursing

Physician Assistants

Physician assistants are trained using the medical model. This is the same training methodology that doctors undergo. The focus on the medical model is to understand diseases and their effect on the human body. This requires an emphasis on pathology, biology, assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

PAs are typically generalists that offer care for many fields in healthcare and can be specialized with additional training and experience.

PAs require supervised clinical hours and the following certifications and licenses:

• National board certification
• State PA licensure and registration
• Graduate PA education
• Bachelor’s degree

Yes, you can often see a NP or PA instead of your doctor. In some cases, a NP or PA may act as your primary care provider if you would prefer to see them for checkups and minor-to-moderate illnesses and injuries.

Yes, both NPs and PAs work with your doctor for your care. This tandem approach means you get the best care guided by your doctor’s expertise and understanding of your health.

Yes, NPs and PAs can both administer and prescribe medications.