The pediatric practice of the child health associate.

Child health associates are individuals who have completed the three-year Child Health Associate Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and are certified by the Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners to practice pediatrics under physician supervision. To our knowledge, this study is the first to describe the practice profile of child health associates. We found them able to provide health care services without direct physician assistance to 91.4% (2,160 of 2,363) of pediatric patients in ambulatory settings. They saw the same variety of patients as primary physicians and identified a broad range of common pediatric problems. Each supervising physician spent an average time of 5.9 minutes with the child health associate in evaluating the 8.6% of patients who required consultation. The child health associate is fully able to serve as a primary health care practitioner for children.