Physicians shouldn’t feel threatened by the continued popularity of retail clinics with consumers, but neither should they ignore them.
Physicians have expressed concern that use of retail clinics will erode their business and will lead to fragmentation of care, but a new survey of retail clinics by healthcare market researcher, Kalorama Information, suggests that while consumers like using retail clinics, they aren’t using the clinics to replace the care they receive from their regular doctor.
In its survey of 2,000 adults age 18 and older, Kalorama found that most visits to retail clinics were for things such as vaccinations and colds and that follow-up visits were not common (less than 10 percent). Additionally, 84 percent of retail clinic visitors said they have a regular physician they’ve seen in the last year.
Physicians shouldn’t heave a sigh of relief, though, said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, because consumers like using retail clinics, the clinics are becoming more prevalent, and retailers like CVS and Walgreens are more aggressively positioning themselves and their retail clinics by doing such things as employing physicians in their clinics and upselling their customers with specialized packages.
Right now, as retail clinics grow and gain acceptance with consumers but haven't become their practice of choice, physicians have an opportunity, said Carlson.
Ideally, there would be more cooperation between retail clinics and physicians and the medical associations that represent them, Carlson said. Some health systems have begun actively working with retail clinics, but for those physicians not in such situations, there are steps they can take.
Physicians can take on the responsibility of minimizing fragmentation of care by asking their patients if they’ve visited retail clinics and if they have, ask that they bring any report of that care with them to their appointment. Carlson suggested doctors should be careful not to be critical of visiting retail clinics to avoid alienating patients.
In thinking about their own practice model, physicians can consider the model of retail clinics – convenience for consumers – and make changes to their own practice that reflect some of the things that attract consumers to retail clinics, said Carlson, like expanded hours of operation and location. If expanding hours of operation is a challenge due to practice size, one option is to partner with other providers to gain the scale needed to offer expanded hours, said Carlson.