Georgia physician assistant workforce : based on 2019-2020 licensure renewal data.

Georgia Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Based on 2019-2020 Licensure Renewal Data
Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce State of Georgia
Published Spring 2023 0

Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Table of Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................................................. 2 Methodology.............................................................................................................................................. 3 Physician Assistant Career Outlook ................................................................................................... 4 Table 1: 5-Year Age Distribution .......................................................................................................... 5 Figure 1: Age Distribution ..................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 2: Race Distribution ................................................................................................................... 7 Table 2: Race Distribution ..................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 3: Ethnicity Distribution ............................................................................................................ 8 Table 3: Ethnicity Distribution .............................................................................................................. 8 Figure 4: Gender Distribution ............................................................................................................... 9 Table 4: Gender Distribution................................................................................................................. 9 Figure 5: Distribution by Race and Gender..................................................................................... 10 Table 5: Distribution by Race and Gender ...................................................................................... 11 Figure 6: Distribution by Gender and Ethnicity ............................................................................. 12 Table 6: Distribution by Gender and Ethnicity ............................................................................... 13 Table 7: Distribution by Practice Setting ......................................................................................... 14 Table 8: Georgia Physician Assistants by County........................................................................ 15 Map 1: PAs per 100,000 Population, by County............................................................................. 18 Map 2: PAs per 100,000 Population in Non-MSA Counties......................................................... 19 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 20
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Executive Summary
The 2020 Physician Assistant Workforce report marks the 5th year the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce (GBHCW) has examined the supply and distribution of Georgia's physician assistants using data from licensure renewals. The physician assistants' data are analyzed by the GBHCW and the resulting information is reported on a biennial basis.
There are 4,484 physician assistants who are licensed, currently working, and practicing in a Georgia county.
This renewal cycle includes 248 physician assistants who are newly licensed in the state of Georgia.
There are 41.9 physician assistants per 100,000 population who are licensed, currently working, and practicing in the state of Georgia.
The top three (3) practice settings for physician assistants are hospital-clinic (70.0%), single-specialty physician group (11.3%), and solo physician practice (11.0%).
Whites represent 68.4% of the physician assistant workforce, while Blacks represent 9.5%, Asians 5.4%, and more than one race/other race 0.4%. 16.3% of physician assistants did not indicate their race.
White women make up the largest gender-race group, at 42.6% of the physician assistant workforce. White men make up the second-largest group, at 25.1%. All other gender-race groups make up the remaining 32.3% of the physician assistant population in Georgia.
63.2% of the physician assistants identify as female; 33.1% identify as male, and 3.7% did not indicate their gender.
Physician assistants working in non-MSA counties are more likely to be female (55.6%) than male (40.7%). 3.7% did not indicate their gender in the survey.
Approximately 79.9% of the physician assistant workforce is 50 years old or younger.
There are 42 counties with no physician assistants, representing a population of 537,320 according to the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget's 2020 population estimate (opb.georgia.gov, derived from U.S. Census Bureau data).
The three (3) counties with the highest rate of physician assistants per 100,000 people are Fulton (107.5), Richmond (99.2), and Thomas (98.3).
Of counties that have a rate of more than zero (0) physician assistants per 100,000 people, those with the three (3) lowest rates are Franklin (4.3), Chattooga (4.0), and Barrow (1.2).
Of the entire physician assistant workforce, 70.3% report working full time (40-40+ hours per week); and 29.7% report not working full time (less than 40 hours per week).
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Methodology This analysis was conducted on physician assistant renewals or original applications from the Georgia Composite Medical Board during the years 2019-2020. The survey is not mandatory to renew the license. Some physician assistants answered some, but not all, questions on the survey. The Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce (GBHCW) compiles, validates, and analyzes data from the surveys to prepare a report on physician characteristics, supply, and demand. Analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel. Data set exclusions: Physician assistants licensed during the years 2019 and 2020 in Georgia who answered they were not "currently working" or did not provide at least one Georgia county as a practice location. Data set inclusions: Physician assistants licensed during the years 2019 and 2020, whose licenses were active, who answered that they were "currently working," and who reported at least one Georgia county as a practice location. Count of total physician assistants: One license number corresponds to one physician assistant. The rate of physician assistants per 100,000 population was calculated using the 2020 Census count of county population and the practice county reported by each physician assistant licensure survey.
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Physician Assistant Career Outlook Physician assistants (PAs) partner with supervising physicians to practice medicine. Supervising physicians may delegate medical duties to physician assistants. Physician assistants perform a vital service to rural and underserved areas of Georgia where there is a shortage of practicing physicians. In doing so, physician assistants increase the quality and quantity of medical services in the state. The demand for physician assistants is on the rise and it is considered one of the fastest growing professions in the country.1 2021 Nationwide Median Salary: $121,5302 2021 Georgia Median Salary: $102,0241 Typical Education: Master's Degree including more than 2,000 hours of clinical rotations and pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) to become licensed.3 Maintain national certification by completing 100 hours of continuing medical education every 2 years and take a recertification exam, Physician Assistant National Recertifying Exam (PANRE) every 10 years. 4 Number of Jobs, 2021: 139,100 nationally.2 Job Outlook, 2021-2031: 28% (much faster than average) 2
1 Southeastern Primary Care Consortium, Inc. 2021. "Health Careers in Georgia." Atlanta Area Health Education Center Health Careers. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/3e5211_b0e9f2fb327e48549826a2da6c2a58c0.pdf 2 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 2022. "Physician Assistants." Occupational Outlook Handbook https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm 3 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 2022. "Physician Assistants: How to Become One." Occupational Outlook Handbook. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm#tab-4 4 AAPA, American Academy of Physician Associates. 2023. "Become a PA" https://www.aapa.org/career-central/become-a-pa/
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Table 1: 5-Year Age Distribution

Age Grouping 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69
Total

Count 425 1,008 867 651 531 393 260 208 141 4,484

Percent 9.5% 22.5% 19.3% 14.5% 11.8% 8.8% 5.8% 4.6% 3.1%
100.0%

The mean average age of PAs in this renewal cycle is 41.4 years old. The lowest value for age is 25, while the highest value is 69. 22.3% of the PAs are age 50 or older.

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Figure 1: Age Distribution
Age Distribution
240 220 200 180 160 140 120 100
80 60 40 20
0 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 Age
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Frequency

Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Figure 2: Race Distribution

Race Distribution
Asian

5.4%

More than one

Race/Other

Race

Black

0.4%

9.5%

Unknown 16.3%

White 68.4%

Table 2: Race Distribution Race
White
Unknown*
Black
Asian More than one Race/ Other Race**
Total

Count Percent

3,069 68.4%

730 16.3%

428

9.5%

241

5.4%

16

0.4%

4,484 100.0%

*The "Unknown" category represents survey responses where the question about race was left unanswered (725) or responded with "Hispanic"(5)
**The "More than one Race/Other Race" category includes those whose responses were "Mixed" (9), "Black/Asian", "Dominican", "Indian", "Iranian-American", "Mexican-American", "Middle Eastern", and "Pacific Islander".

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Figure 3: Ethnicity Distribution

Hispanic Ethnicity

Unknown

Yes

1.3%

2.8%

No 95.9%

Table 3: Ethnicity Distribution

Hispanic No Yes Unknown*
Total

Count 4,298 126
60 4,484

Percent 95.9% 2.8% 1.3% 100.0%

*The "Unknown" category represents survey responses where the question about ethnicity was left unanswered
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Figure 4: Gender Distribution
Gender
Unknown 3.7%

Male 33.1%

Female 63.2%

Table 4: Gender Distribution

Gender Female Male Unknown*
Total

Count 2,833 1,484 167 4,484

Percent 63.2% 33.1% 3.7% 100.0%

*The "Unknown" category represents survey responses where the question about gender was left unanswered.
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Figure 5: Distribution by Race and Gender

Race and Gender

Asian Female 3.7%

Asian Male Black Male 1.5%
2.7%

More than One Race, any Gender
0.4%

Black Female 6.7%

Unknown Race or Gender 17.3%

White Female 42.6%

White Male 25.1%
*The "Unknown Race or Gender" category represents survey responses where the question about gender or race was left unanswered (776).
White female PAs make up 42.6% (1,908) of the total workforce for this renewal cycle. White PAs, both male, female, and those without a gender indicated; make up 77.6% of
the entire workforce for this renewal cycle.
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Table 5: Distribution by Race and Gender
Table 5: Distribution by Race and Gender

Race x Gender Female
White Unknown Black Asian More than One Race/Other Race
Male White Unknown Black Asian More than One Race/Other Race
Unknown Gender Unknown White Black Asian More than One Race/Other Race
Total

Count 2,833 1,908 445 300 167
13 1,484 1,127 165 121
69 2 167 120 34 7 5 1 4,484

Percent 63.2% 42.6% 9.9% 6.7% 3.7% 0.3% 33.1% 25.1% 3.7% 2.7% 1.5% 0.0% 3.7% 2.7% 0.8% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 100.0%

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Figure 6: Distribution by Gender and Ethnicity

Gender and Ethnicity

Unknown Gender or Ethnicity 5.0%

Female- MaleHispanic Hispanic
1.7% 1.0%

Male-Not Hispanic 31.7%

Female-Not Hispanic 60.6%

*The "Unknown" category represents survey responses where the question about gender and ethnicity was left unanswered (5)
PAs who are female and not Hispanic make up 60.6% (2,716) of the total workforce for this renewal cycle.
PAs who are not Hispanic--male, female, and those without a gender indicated--make up 95.9% of the entire workforce for this renewal cycle.
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Table 6: Distribution by Gender and Ethnicity

Gender x Ethnicity Female
Not Hispanic Hispanic Unknown Male
Not Hispanic Hispanic Unknown
Unknown Gender Not Hispanic Unknown Hispanic Total

Count Percent

2,833 63.2%

2,716 60.6%

78 1.7%

39 0.9%

1,484 33.1%

1,421 31.7%

47 1.0%

16 0.4%

167 3.7%

161 3.6%

5

0.1%

1

0.0%

4,484 100.0%

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report
Table 7: Distribution by Practice Setting

Practice Setting
Hospital-Clinic Single-Specialty Physician Group Solo Physician Practice Other Unknown Community Health Center College or University Nursing Home or Long Term Care Facility
Total

Count
3,137 509 493 135 119 48 31 12
4,484

Percent
70.0% 11.4% 11.0% 3.0% 2.7% 1.1% 0.7% 0.3%
100.0%

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Licensure Survey

Table 8: Georgia Physician Assistants by County

County

PCSA

Total PAs

2020 County Population

Rate per 100,000

Georgia

-

4,484 10,711,908

41.9

Appling

91

1

18,444

5.4

Atkinson

88

1

8,286

12.1

Bacon

90

0

11,140

0.0

Baker

76

0

2,876

0.0

Baldwin

47

3

43,799

6.8

Banks

10

0

18,035

0.0

Barrow

27

1

83,505

1.2

Bartow

17

16

108,901

14.7

Ben Hill

87

0

17,194

0.0

Berrien

85

0

18,160

0.0

Bibb

46

101

157,346

64.2

Bleckley

63

1

12,583

7.9

Brantley

93

0

18,021

0.0

Brooks

81

5

16,301

30.7

Bryan

52

8

44,738

17.9

Bulloch

53

22

81,099

27.1

Burke

50

2

24,596

8.1

Butts

37

3

25,434

11.8

Calhoun

76

2

5,573

35.9

Camden

96

7

54,768

12.8

Candler

55

1

10,981

9.1

Carroll

19

26

119,148

21.8

Catoosa

1

11

67,872

16.2

Charlton

95

0

12,518

0.0

Chatham

52

242

295,291

82.0

Rank
112 78 118 118 107 118 117 74 118 118 11 97 118 34 66 41 96 79 24 77 91 49 70 118
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County

PCSA

Chattahoochee 43

Chattooga

18

Cherokee

15

Clarke

27

Clay

76

Clayton

39

Clinch

83

Cobb

21

Coffee

88

Colquitt

78

Columbia

31

Cook

80

Coweta

41

Crawford

46

Crisp

65

Dade

1

Dawson

11

Decatur

73

DeKalb

23

Dodge

62

Dooly

66

Dougherty

76

Douglas

20

Early

71

Echols

82

Effingham

52

Elbert

29

Emanuel

57

Total PAs
0 1 61 99 1 39 2 369 13 7 48 1 68 0 4 0 3 7 419 3 1 50 17 2 0 16 2 5

2020 County Population
9,565 24,965 266,620 128,671 2,848 297,595 6,749 766,149 43,092 45,898 156,010 17,229 146,158 12,130 20,128 16,251 26,798 29,367 764,382 19,925 11,208 85,790 144,237 10,854 3,697 64,769 19,637 22,768

Rate per 100,000 0.0 4.0 22.9 76.9 35.1 13.1 29.6 48.2 30.2 15.3 30.8 5.8 46.5 0.0 19.9 0.0 11.2 23.8 54.8 15.1 8.9 58.3 11.8 18.4 0.0 24.7 10.2 22.0

Rank
118 116 47
8 25 76 37 17 36 72 33 111 19 118 56 118 83 45 13 73 95 12 80 64 118 43 88 48

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County
Evans Fannin Fayette Floyd Forsyth Franklin Fulton Gilmer Glascock Glynn Gordon Grady Greene Gwinnett Habersham Hall Hancock Haralson Harris Hart Heard Henry Houston Irwin Jackson Jasper Jeff Davis

Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

PCSA
56 4 40 18 13 9 22 3 32 93 16 74 34 25 10 11 33 19 43 28 42 38 67 86 27 36 89

Total PAs
2 2 65 65 80 1 1,147 2 0 45 11 2 5 279 9 151 0 5 0 0 0 82 27 0 23 3 1

2020 County Population
10,774 25,319 119,194 98,584 251,283 23,424 1,066,710 31,353 2,884 84,499 57,544 26,236 18,915 957,062 46,031 203,136 8,735 29,919 34,668 25,828 11,412 240,712 163,633 9,666 75,907 14,588 14,779

Rate per 100,000 18.6 7.9 54.5 65.9 31.8 4.3 107.5 6.4 0.0 53.3 19.1 7.6 26.4 29.2 19.6 74.3 0.0 16.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 34.1 16.5 0.0 30.3 20.6 6.8

Rank
62 98 14 10 30 115 1 109 118 15 60 99 42 39 58 9 118 67 118 118 118 27 69 118 35 53 108

County
Jefferson Jenkins Johnson Jones Lamar Lanier Laurens Lee Liberty Lincoln Long Lowndes Lumpkin Macon Madison Marion McDuffie McIntosh Meriwether Miller Mitchell Monroe Montgomery Morgan Murray Muscogee Newton

PCSA
49 54 48 46 44 84 60 76 52 31 92 82 12 66 27 43 32 93 42 72 76 45 58 27 2 43 36

Total PAs
5 1 1 2 0 0 25 3 18 0 0 38 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 4 2 1 2 4 97 22

2020 County Population
15,709 8,674 9,189 28,347 18,500 9,877 49,570 33,163 65,256 7,690 16,168 118,251 33,488 12,082 30,120 7,498 21,632 10,975 20,613 6,000 21,755 27,957 8,610 20,097 39,973 206,922 112,483

Rate per 100,000 31.8 11.5 10.9 7.1 0.0 0.0 50.4 9.0 27.6 0.0 0.0 32.1 9.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 18.5 0.0 0.0 16.7 18.4 7.2 11.6 10.0 10.0 46.9 19.6

Rank
31 82 87 106 118 118 16 93 40 118 118 29 94 118 118 118 63 118 118 68 65 102 81 90 89 18 57

16

County
Oconee Oglethorpe Paulding Peach Pickens Pierce Pike Polk Pulaski Putnam Quitman Rabun Randolph Richmond Rockdale Schley Screven Seminole Spalding Stephens Stewart Sumter Talbot Taliaferro Tattnall Taylor Telfair

Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

PCSA
27 27 21 46 14 94 37 18 64 35 70 7 70 31 24 68 51 72 37 8 69 68 43 30 56 46 61

Total PAs
35 0 12 2 13 0 1 0 0 2 0 4 2 205 32 0 3 1 14 2 1 6 0 0 3 0 2

2020 County Population
41,799 14,825 168,661 27,981 33,216 19,716 18,889 42,853 9,855 22,047 2,235 16,883 6,425 206,607 93,570 4,547 14,067 9,147 67,306 26,784 5,314 29,616 5,733 1,559 22,842 7,816 12,477

Rate per 100,000 83.7 0.0 7.1 7.1 39.1 0.0 5.3 0.0 0.0 9.1 0.0 23.7 31.1 99.2 34.2 0.0 21.3 10.9 20.8 7.5 18.8 20.3 0.0 0.0 13.1 0.0 16.0

Rank
4 118 105 103 22 118 113 118 118 92 118 46 32
2 26 118 50 85 52 100 61 54 118 118 75 118 71

County
Terrell Thomas Tift Toombs Towns Treutlen Troup Turner Twiggs Union Upson Walker Walton Ware Warren Washington Wayne Webster Wheeler White Whitfield Wilcox Wilkes Wilkinson Worth

PCSA
76 75 79 58 6 60 42 79 46 5 44 1 26 94 32 48 92 69 59 11 2 64 30 46 77

Total PAs
1 45 32 10 3 0 14 1 0 11 9 5 6 28 1 0 12 0 0 2 30 0 2 0 1

2020 County Population
9,185 45,798 41,344 27,030 12,493 6,406 69,426 9,006 8,022 24,632 27,700 67,654 96,673 36,251 5,215 19,988 30,144 2,348 7,471 28,003 102,864 8,766 9,565 8,877 20,784

Rate per 100,000 10.9 98.3 77.4 37.0 24.0 0.0 20.2 11.1 0.0 44.7 32.5 7.4 6.2 77.2 19.2 0.0 39.8 0.0 0.0 7.1 29.2 0.0 20.9 0.0 4.8

Rank
86 3 6 23 44 118 55 84 118 20 28 101 110 7 59 118 21 118 118 104 38 118 51 118 114

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Licensure Survey

Map 1: PAs per 100,000 Population, by County

Rate of Physician Assistants per 100,000
0.0 0.1-20.0 20.1-40.0 40.1-60.0 60.1-80.0 80.1-110.0

Number of Counties
42 62 35 9 6 5

There were 42 counties with no physician assistants. This represents a population of 537,320.
For the state of Georgia, the average number of physician assistants per 100,000 people is 41.9.

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Workforce Report

Map 2: PAs per 100,000 Population in Non-MSA Counties

Rate of Physician Assistants per
100,000
0.0 0.1-20.0 20.1-40.0 40.1-60.0 60.1-80.0 80.1-110.0
MSA

Number of Counties
23 37 20 2 2 1 74

The color is white for MSA counties. There were 23 counties in non-MSAs with no
physician assistants. This represents a population of 274,557.

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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Licensure Survey
Acknowledgements This report was produced under the direction of Chet Bhasin, FACHE, Executive Director; Leanna Greenwood, MA, Data Team Supervisor; Whitney Puetz, Data Intern; and G.E. Alan Dever, MD PhD, Consultant. The Board would like to thank the Georgia Composite Medical Board for providing the licensure data used in this report. Thank you to the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce Board Members for their leadership and support:
Terri McFadden-Garden, M.D. - Chair James Barber, M.D. - Vice Chair William R. "Will" Kemp - Secretary/Treasurer Garrett Bennett, M.D. W. Scott Bohlke, M.D. Carolyn Clevenger, DNP Steven Gautney, MSHA Michael J. Groover, D.M.D. Lily Jung Henson, M.D. Indran Indrakrishnan, M.D. Amy Reeves, PA-C Antonio Rios, M.D. James Lofton Smith, Jr., M.D. Joseph L. Walker, M.D.
The 2019-2020 Physician Assistant Licensure Survey document can be viewed and downloaded on the internet at healthcareworkforce.georgia.gov. The Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce welcomes comments and suggestions for future editions of this report. Please send comments to leanna.greenwood@dch.ga.gov.
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