Study: Retail clinics offer quality care

People with minor illnesses can receive cheaper and comparable, if not better, treatment at clinics found in retail spaces, a study found.

Patients suffering from three common ailments paid 30 percent to 40 percent less for treatment than those who went to physicians' offices or urgent care centers.

Emergency room care was 80 percent more expensive. Patients thought quality at all four care options was similar. The study focused on patients enrolled in a Minnesota health plan and was published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Retail clinics - usually found inside pharmacy chains - grew more than 10-fold between 2006 and 2008 to almost 1,000 locations nationwide. By 2008 more than 3 million visitors used retail clinics for things like minor care and vaccinations. Unlike a doctor's office, appointments aren't mandatory, clinics have extended hours, and nurse practitioners administer care.

Some clinics said the study disproved past criticisms from groups like the American Medical Association.

Besides their convenience, the clinics offer patient-focused health care, said Gabriel Weissman, spokesman for Walgreens Take Care Health Systems and Jon Sandberg, spokesman for CVS Caremark.

"Over 40 percent of our patients say that if it weren't for Take Care Health Clinics throughout the United States, they'd be going to an emergency room, an urgent care clinic or perhaps wouldn't be even seeking care at all," Weissman said.

Yet some medical professionals still question retail clinic use.

"Yes, it's convenient, but I still am not convinced that convenience and low cost are going to always translate to quality and good outcomes," said Dr. James Milam, president of the Illinois State Medical Society.

Using retail clinics diminishes the favored "medical home" model which encourages patients to have a long-term doctor familiar with their medical history, Milam said.

In serious cases, retail clinics may take the patients a general practice doctor should have seen from the beginning, said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program.

"He or she is constantly getting more seriously ill patients at a time when they (have) diminishing time and resources to serve them" because of doctor shortages, Young said.

But, Weissman counters, retail clinics offer access into the broader health care system. Thirty percent of Walgreens' Take Care Health Clinics don't have a primary care provider. Nurse practitioners often introduce patients "to the larger health care community, referring patients who do not have (a) health care home to the right setting to get the care they need," Weissman said.

As consumers decide which options work for them, the competition may breed improvement in traditional health care, which hasn't offered accessible and low-cost care, said Dr. James R. Dan, president of Advocate Medical Group.

"I don't view it as an answer for the community in total of the health care problem," he said, noting that traditional options have more resources and skill at hand. "It's a welcome addition to provisional services in the community."

Area clinics:

Walgreens Take Care clinic

14680 LaGrange Road

Orland Park

(708) 460-2021

Wal-Mart MEDPOINTexpress

2400 Morthland Drive

Valparaiso

(800) 635-5516

MinuteClinic in CVS pharmacy store

9551 171st St.

Tinley Park