Health care can be a complicated road to travel, especially in today’s world. To whom do you turn when you need assistance managing a medical issue or if you just need a routine exam? For more than two decades, Cynthia Dalsing, MSN, NP has assisted women with their health-care needs. Three years ago, she added Nurse Practitioner Tabitha Barron to her team at Women’s Health Care, and their practice has continued to thrive and grow.
As nurse practitioners, Dalsing and Barron provide a high level of care, including diagnosing and treating illnesses, ordering and interpreting tests, performing in-office procedures and prescribing medications. It is a fact of which many are unaware.
Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with a bachelor’s degree in nursing with additional education at a master’s or doctorate level. They have more than six years of education to prepare them to practice in a variety of medical settings, and in Idaho, nurse practitioners can practice independently of a physician.
“We are part of the solution for the health-care crisis in our country,” explained Dalsing. “There are over 1,000 nurse practitioners in the state of Idaho, and this progressive state law recognizes us as primary care providers.”
Unfortunately, there is still work to be done to increase the care that nurse practitioners are permitted to provide. Dalsing recently attended a legislative conference in Washington D.C., where some of these barriers to optimal care were addressed.
“There are three barriers to a nurse practitioner’s ability to practice which affect quality, costs and timely access to care,” explained Dalsing. “These are the inability to refer a patient to home health, refer to hospice and order diabetic shoes.”
At the federal level, a bill is being introduced into the Senate to permit nurse practitioners to refer patients for home health care.
“In addition, there is a resolution in the House which will include nurse practitioners in the matrix that insurance companies use to measure health-care outcomes,” said Dalsing. “Health care is moving away from a fee-for-service payment structure to reimbursing health-care providers for outcome measures. In other words, the better care you give and the healthier your patients are, the better the state of Idaho will be graded on its health care. That also means Idaho would be able to receive more money for health care.”
Furthermore, a nurse practitioner is paid 85 percent of what a physician is paid for performing the same service. “This means that when a nurse practitioner owns and operates a medical clinic, she has the same expenses, costs and wages that any medical clinic would have, but is doing this with 15-percent less income,” explained Dalsing.
Patients of Women’s Health Care receive comprehensive and compassionate care. Both Dalsing and Barron take the time to address the needs—both physical and emotional—of their patients, how these issues affect their patients’ everyday lives and help the patients navigate their way through options to lead a healthy, happy and productive life.
Dalsing and Barron agree that taking the time to meet with each person, asking them questions and learning about their challenges is their top priority. “I enjoy getting to know each patient and being able to take the time to listen to them and let them guide me as to what type of care they want,” said Barron of the many choices available from natural supplements to prescription medication.
Women’s Health Care accepts most insurance including Medicare and Medicaid and is open five days a week. They are a compassionate team of health-care providers whose focus is on assisting their patients on their health-care journey.
Women’s Health Care
1215 Michigan St. Suite C
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
208.263.1299