Use of retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other retail settings has increased many folds over the last few years. It would be appropriate to name these retail healthcare clinics as, convenient-consumer driven clinics as they have sprawled the convenience of the consumers and fulfilled their basic healthcare needs.
No wonder, retail clinics cannot be a substitute for secondary or tertiary healthcare units, but can be rewarding for many consumers who require primary care in many health situations that may be very acute in nature like sore throat, mild diarrhea, fever, headaches etc, for which most of the patients do not want to visit physicians in hospitals.
Few of the most determining factors in choosing such clinics over a hospital is; quick service, convenience in visiting them due to near proximity, services offered during extended evening hours and weekends and economically less expensive compared to hospital visits. Moreover, the acceptance of various health insurance companies for reimbursement has added another advantage for the consumers to visit such clinics.
One of the study published in American Journal of Managed Care in November 2011, also indicated that the high income group also prefer more such clinics due to less time required in visiting such clinics over hospitals. Not only this, it is preferred by other income groups as well, as it costs them nearly 40% less than the amount otherwise paid by the patients in hospitals or emergency rooms.
Certainly, these clinics have an edge over other clinics because of being a more viable option, but there is still an ambiguity in the minds of many on the possibility of compromised quality and continuity of care in these clinics. Sometimes, in such clinics, the underlying health condition may also go undetected. Hence, it would be a prudent decision to conduct more surveys and researches to find out the actual benefits of such clinics over others before promoting them further.