Category: Despite the Hype, Patients’ Use of Retail Clinics Is ‘Modest’

JGrimes
The number of patients who’ve tried out retail clinics turns out to be modest, but that’s shouldn’t be all that surprising, some health wonks say.
The clinics are still young, and while they’ve spread rapidly (and then slowed down), they’re still not everywhere, note the authors of a study from the Center for Studying […]

Scott Hensley
There’s been plenty of debate over the walk-in clinics cropping up in drug stores and big-box retailers. But research has been lacking on just who is using those clinics and what they’re being treated for.
In a new study that helps fill that gap, researchers pooled data from 1.35 million visits to more […]

JGrimes
A Mexican health-care company opened clinics this week in three Miami-area pharmacies whose customers are mostly Latino. Count that as a national-trend twofer — targeting the Latino market and putting clinics in retail stores.
The clinics will be staffed by bilingual physicians (a departure from the standard practice of employing nurse practitioners), and they’re […]

JGrimes
There’s a new push to bolster public health by making it harder for people to consume unhealthy things.
First, there was New York’s new requirement that chain restaurants post the often eye-popping calorie counts of their meals in plain sight of customers ordering them. California just enacted a law against trans fats in restaurant […]

JGrimes
The retail clinic, one of the pretty young things beloved of the market-driven health-care crowd, is hitting a rough patch.
After a few years of rapid growth, the number of retail clinics nationwide actually fell last month, to 969 from 981, according to a tally cited in this morning’s Chicago Tribune.
It was the first […]

Scott Hensley
The drug stores and big-box retailers opening in-store clinics should make a choice: Stop selling cigarettes, or shut down the clinics. At least, that’s the position the AMA adopted this week at its big annual policy meeting.
The AMA doesn’t oppose retail clinics, but doctors’ groups in some states have called for tighter […]

JMongeon
Illinois docs have been calling for more regulation of the retail clinics springing up in drug stores and big-box retailers around the state. But a proposed state law pushed by the Illinois State Medical Society “could excessively restrict retail clinics to the detriment of Illinois consumers,” the Federal Trade Commission said.
The bill would […]

JGrimes
Walgreen’s plans to open retail clinics in Massachusetts is stirring up new controversy over whether such outlets pose a threat to more traditional forms of primary care.
The Boston Globe reports that the pharmacy chain has submitted requests to the state to build Take Care clinics in 16 of its Massachusetts stores, adding to […]

JGrimes
Retail clinics are hitting some tough realities as they move past the era of hype.
Like the Internet, the clinics aren’t going away. But an initial wave of enthusiasm does seem to be passing, as some clinics go bust and others scale back expansion plans, the WSJ reports.
In the past few years, hundreds of […]

JGrimes
MedStar Health, a big nonprofit hospital chain, is trying a new variation on the retail clinic theme.
Most retail clinics, popping up in drugstores and big box retailers around the country, are staffed by nurse practitioners and physicians assistants who treat only minor ailments.
But MedStar plans to open clinics staffed by doctors in four […]