Photo of President Obama and Kathleen Quigley by Rick Reinhard, Children's National Medication Center

PA Kathleen "Katie" Quigley of Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., was among the health care providers that President Obama met with during a health care reform roundtable discussion at the hospital Monday. The president asked the group about the day-to-day difficulties of practicing medicine, health care disparities, electronic medical records, and the specific health care needs of the pediatric patients they see daily.

Quigley, a PA in pediatric neurosurgery, had enough time to voice some of her concerns and those of the PA profession. "One of the main points I wanted to discuss with him is the fact that health care coverage doesn't always translate into good access to care. Specifically regarding Medicaid coverage, we see at Children's Hospital a lot of patients with brain tumors, spinal cord disease, and head trauma, who after surgery go on to require inpatient rehabilitation services."

She continued, "Often times, those patients are denied the inpatient services due to their particular insurance. I let him know that we had a patient on our service last week who sustained a pretty traumatic brain injury and was sent home with intermittent physical and occupational therapy when multiple modalities had recommenced inpatient rehabilitation."
A graduate of the George Washington University PA program, Quigley wanted to make Obama more aware of the diverse roles PAs play in health care.

"I talked about how our neurosurgery service is composed of three attending physicians, three PAs, and one or two rotating residents, and [that] so much of the work that is done on our service is done by physician assistants," she explained during an interview with AAPA a few hours after the roundtable.

Although the event was relatively short, Quigley believes it was a good opportunity for medical professionals to have a personal interaction with the president. She gained an idea of where his priorities lie, and she got a sense of what his goals are in the current and upcoming health care legislation.

Read some of the president's remarks here.