Published in:
01-03-2016 | Editorial
Retail Clinics Shine a Harsh Light on the Failure of Primary Care Access
Authors:
David M. Levine, MD, MA, Jeffrey A. Linder, MD, MPH, FACP
Published in:
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|
Issue 3/2016
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Excerpt
Retail clinics, which are usually located inside retail pharmacies, provide walk-in care mainly for low-acuity problems. Retail clinics have transparent pricing and are staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Since first opening in the United States in 2000, retail clinic use has grown rapidly but remains small: the proportion of families that reported using a retail clinic in the prior year increased from 1 % in 2007 to 3 % in 2010.
1 Retail clinics have obvious appeal as low-cost, accessible sites of care. …