Physician Assistant License

Washington State holds 6,173 active credentials of this type — 1.1% of every active health care credential in the state. Here is what that number is made of, and how to check one.

What kind of credential this is

A Physician Assistant License is a License — the broadest of Washington’s credentials. Where the state licenses a profession, it is generally unlawful to practise it without holding one, and the holder answers to the Department for how they practise.

That word is not a formality. Washington issues 304,441 active credentials in this form across the state, and it decides what the holder may do without someone else’s supervision. How a license differs from the others.

When these credentials expire

Washington renews on the holder’s birthday, so these 6,173 expiry dates are spread right across the calendar rather than falling together. By year:

Continuing education

The Department records a continuing-education due date for 6,144 of these 6,173 credentials (99.5%). Where it is absent, that does not mean no hours are owed — it means this file does not carry the date.

How long these holders have been credentialled

The oldest Physician Assistant License credential still active in Washington was first issued in 1973. 1,464 of the 6,173 were issued in 2024 or later — 23.7% of the profession is that new.

The disciplinary flag

12 of the 6,173 active credentials of this type carry a disciplinary flag in the Department’s file — 0.2% — and 54 carry one marked pending.

This site publishes that count and no more: never who. The reason is not discretion, it is accuracy — the published file carries a yes/no flag and nothing else: no reason, no date, no case number. Naming someone on the strength of it would publish a suspicion rather than a fact. Every credential counted here is active. Why the line is drawn there.

Do not let the date pass

6,173 credentials of this type are active in Washington. Washington renews most of them on the holder’s birthday, every year or every two years, and continuing-education hours have to be done before that date — not after. Leave your details and we will tell you when yours is close, and pass your request for continuing-education hours to providers who teach for this credential.

We take no commission and we vouch for no training provider. We have no arrangement with any provider today — we are collecting these requests in order to go and find them. What we do with this.

Some of the 6,173 holders

Named as the Department of Health holds them, and limited to 140 rows — the full set is in the search, by number or by surname.

Narrower pages for this profession

• Physician Assistant License expiring in 2026 — 926
• Physician Assistant License expiring in 2027 — 3,086
• Physician Assistant License expiring in 2028 — 2,160
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2013 — 156
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2014 — 168
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2015 — 213
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2016 — 286
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2017 — 256
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2018 — 273
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2019 — 307
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2020 — 286
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2021 — 411
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2022 — 437
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2023 — 417
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2024 — 514
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2025 — 568
• Physician Assistant License first issued in 2026 — 382

Credentials of a similar size

• Pharmacy Technician Certification 10,038
• Licensed Practical Nurse 9,895
• Social Worker Independent Clinical License 9,624
• Radiologic Technologist Certification 8,453
• Physical Therapist License 8,159
• Medical Assistant Registration 7,667
• Dentist License 7,055
• Dental Hygiene License 6,089
• Certified Behavior Technician 5,091
• Veterinary License 4,715
• Occupational Therapist License 4,611
• Dietitian Certification 4,242
• Speech Language Pathologist License 4,148

Neighbours by size, not a ranking: this list slides with the profession you are on, so every one of the 98 pages is reachable from the others rather than only the largest few. All of them.