I think you are confusing a Physicians’ Assistant (PA) with this new designation “Assistant Physician”.
For years my primary care provider was a PA (I used to call him “Dr. Dave”) and he was better than any doctor I’ve ever seen. When I first moved to Pennsylvania, I was still going down to Maryland to see him for my yearly physical and he was in the Johns Hopkins system so if needed he could refer me to any of their specialists. He could write prescriptions, order medical tests, pretty much everything a primary care Dr. can do but as I understand they have to be supervised by an MD. But what I liked about him was his friendly manner and sense of humor and that I never felt he rushed me through an appointment or wasn’t willing to explain things and answer all my questions.
The other thing I liked about “Dr. Dave: was that when Johns Hopkins instituted new protocols, one being to ask all patients whether or not they had any firearms in their home, Dr. Dave asked me the question, but when I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, he told me “yes, it is a BS question so I’m just going to mark “no”.
The other thing “Dr. Dave” did was perhaps save my eye sight.
I had had a mild head cold but then developed “pink eye” but not your typical conjunctivitis. I was running a high fever, both eyes were pumping out copious amounts of yellow and green puss, my actual eyeballs were swollen and my whole face was swollen. I had to get a relative to take me in to see him because I pretty much couldn’t see well enough to drive myself.
Dr. Dave took one look at me and told me “Don’t touch anything!” and “follow me”. He called the Johns Hopkins Wilmer eye clinic but couldn’t get me an appoint right then so he called another eye specialist and my niece drove me right over.
When I got there, I was examined by several doctors and was told that it was the worst case of conjunctivitis that they’d ever seen. They actually wanted to admit me to the hospital but instead put me on oral antibiotics, a cream antibiotic to put in my eyes, and steroids. But I had to go back the next day to be checked because if it didn’t get any better or had gotten any worse, they were going to admit me to the hospital. They diagnosed it as acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, a viral infection but that had also led to a more serious secondary bacterial infection. But one of the eye specialist told me that “while a lot of doctors see pink eye and overreact, yours didn’t, he was right to not try to treat this himself and send you here right away.”
Glad your experience with Dr. Dave was a positive one.