An Examination of Quick Care Clinics
Wednesday, September 19, 2007SUZANNE PRATT: Health care is already a central issue in next year's presidential campaign, but a new trend in the industry is now giving some consumers easier access to medical professionals. Convenient care or retail clinics are popping up at major chain stores like Walgreens, CVS and Wal-Mart. As Diane Eastabrook reports, even more of these quick care clinics are on the way.
DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: At this Meijer's store in Aurora, Illinois, customers have something new to check out while they shop. This is one of two Medical Marts to open recently in Chicago-area Meijers stores. Medical Marts operates seven similar clinics in Utah and plans to open 11 more around the country by the end of the year. Each clinic offers walk-in medical care and access to a doctor seven days a week. Chief medical officer Kenneth Richmond says the concept is a new twist on the traditional family practice.
DR. KENNETH RICHMOND, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MEDICAL MARTS: What we were concerned about was taking what people refer to as their own physician and just taking them from where they traditionally are found, whether that be in a doctor's building or a medical arts building next to the hospital and putting it right in the community where they live.
EASTABROOK: Placing medical clinics in retail outlets gives patients easy access to medical care, but it also gives health care providers easy access to patients. Medical Marts estimates about 6,000 customers pass before this office every day. Medical Marts is the latest entrant to one of the fastest growing segments of health care: convenient care clinics. There are more than 400 clinics nationwide in retailers like Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreens. Two thousands more are expected to open within a couple of years. Take Care Health Systems operates 60 clinics in Walgreens stores in five states. It plans to open 150 more. The company uses nurse practitioners to treat minor ailments like strep throat, pink eye and poison ivy. Take care Chairman Hal Rosenbluth says his clinics are not meant to replace the family physician.
HAL ROSENBLUTH, CHAIRMAN, TAKE CARE HEALTH SYSTEMS: About 40 percent of the patients who come to Take Care do not have a physician, so we provide them with a number of physicians that they can go to to create that medical home.
EASTABROOK: A visit to a retail clinic is about half the cost of a visit to a traditional doctor's office. Most accept insurance or cash. Aon consulting Senior Vice President David Fortosis says that makes convenient care attractive to the nation's 45 million uninsured.
DAVID FORTOSIS, SENIOR V.P., AON CONSULTING, INC.: You suspect a lot of those people who couldn't afford to walk into a physician office or to an emergency room are going to find this as a wonderful substitute to get basic care.
EASTABROOK: Still, some physicians are skeptical about the concept. Dr. Shastri Swaminathan, president-elect of the Illinois State Medical Society, wants the state to require physician oversight at all quick care clinics.
DR. SHASTRI SWAMINATHAN, PRESIDENT-ELECT, ILLINOIS STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY: These are going to happen. They are happening and our concern is that they should happen at the highest standards of health care.
EASTABROOK: Convenient care clinics say they aren't a quick fix to the nation's health care crisis, but one step in getting consumers the care they may need. Diane Eastabrook, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Aurora, Illinois.
