rebl01

10 Reasons In-Store Clinics Will Succeed

Retail clinics will only succeed if they are run by an established health system where individuals are already established within that system. Continuity of care is critical. The biggest falacy is that it helps the uninsured. (Yes but only the individuals with small problems who have the money to pay for the service) What happens to that uninsured man who finds out he has cataracts at the wal-mart clinic? Where is he going to go from there?

Therefore, Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreens are much better off pairing with a local health system simply to garner the necessary traffic to support themselves. (Such as Mayo Health System, Harvard Health system, etc.) Retail clinics are not succeeding where they are needed most, underserved poor areas. These individuals could not afford the basic services no matter how cheap they are. Therefore most of the successful walk in clinics are located in surburbs. (Where most of the people already have ins)

I know of too many incidents where patients end up paying more because they go to these non health system affiliated clinics (minute clinic, NOW Care) with problems they are not qualified to treat. by having the NP part of the health system and the patient in the system he or she can better direct them to either their primary care doctor or urgent care / emergency room.

I also know of many primary care clinics that are now fighting back with better hours, (open Sat & Sun), open scheduling, and a number of new services. One even put a minute clinic out of business. Why go to a minute clinic when you have the ability to see your doctor or go to an urgent care?

So the best thing that has come from the clinics is that primary care (Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine) are now becoming more competitive and offering hours and services that the public needs and wants.

If only we could get to a point where all health care was POS (point of sale), But so long as Medicare and Medicaid cost shift onto those of us who are insured we will continue to have to pay much higher healthcare costs. I know if we went to a POS system you could then get a 30 minute appt for probably 50% less than you are paying now. (But that would mean higher costs for medicare and medicaid patients..........ther... it will never happen)