The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have voiced concern over the trend to retail-based health clinics. Retail-based clinics, located in stores like Wal-Mart, Target and CVS, promise quick attention for routine visits with no appointments. The AMA opposes retail-based clinics as an appropriate source of medical care for infants, children and adolescents and strongly discourages their use.
Anne Pohnert, Washington, D.C.-area manager of operations for retail clinic chain MinuteClinic, said, "Many patients would like to get in to see their primary care physician, but when they call, there is no appointment available." She added, "We believe that a visit to MinuteClinic instead of an [emergency department] on a Friday evening for a five-minute strep test is a win-win for patients and insurers trying to save time and health care costs."
Rick Kellerman, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said, "The retail clinics are sending physicians a message that our current model of care is not always easy to access." Kellerman said that physicians, who are concerned about retail clinics "encroaching on the economics of their business," already have begun adapting to the trend by expanding office hours, opening on weekends and offering online scheduling. AAFP also has launched a national project to test ways to improve patient care and "make primary care practices more welcoming to patients.
See full story at WashingtonPost.com, Is 'Quick' Enough?
Store Clinics Tap a Public Need, but Many Doctors Call the Care Inferior
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Please view todays entry on the blog "National Association of Retail Clinic Practitioners" where I address some of the concerns of the AAP as outlined in their Policy statement of December 2006.
This is in response to the article "Is 'Quick' Enough?", 1/16/07.
Free standing after-hours urgent care clinics have been in existence for over 20 years without the same Voices of Opposition being raised.
Given our busy and transient life styles, retail clinics safely and expertly fill a niche and the needs of the health care customer. The parameters by which these nurse practitioner (NP) staffed clinics operate are very well defined. Furthermore, the NP profession itself isn't a new kid on the healthcare block: it's been in existence 30+ years!
Why, then is there protest to retail-based clinics? It is an obvious, albeit "non PC" answer: we're talking about physician revenue here, folks. No? Show me the data that demonstrates that NP care isn't safe, QUALITY care. I'll save you the trouble: there isn't any and there's been many a study done on the subject.
Yes I'm a nurse practitioner. Lest ye shout "aha!": I'm not eligible for employment in these clinics as they treat all ages and I am a pediatric NP: my specialty is confined to treating pediatric-aged patients.
I say full steam ahead and furthermore, let's look at the state of Washington which has removed so many of the arbitrary barriers to NP practice--recognition by insurance companies as providers & not requiring written collaborative agreements with M.D.s to name two--that independent NP practice is a reality. And still the world hasn't spun off its axis.