Business
Where patients go after retail clinics
■ An occasional snapshot of current facts and trends in medicine.
Quick View. Posted Sept. 3, 2007
A patient survey found that in 16% of cases, a visit to a retail clinic led to a physician referral.
The survey also found that 88% of retail clinic users viewed retail clinics as a convenient option for times their physicians are not available. But 12% viewed clinics as replacements for their doctors. Here are characteristics of those most likely to consider a retail clinic to have "mostly or completely replaced my primary care physician" for minor treatments:
- Lower income
- Male
- Non-white
- Young
- Place greater emphasis on cost as a primary factor
- Feel more strongly that retail clinics should compete with primary care physicians
- Uninsured or on Medicaid
Source: Market Strategies International, April report, "Retail Clinics: Primary Care Evolution or Revolution." Between Feb. 7 and Feb. 19, MSI conducted an online survey of consumers in 15 markets with high retail clinic penetration, with quotes of 60 users and 90 nonusers per market. Margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.
