Or is it much needed innovation?
Many Americans are unable to obtain timely appointments for acute illnesses and often turn to urgent care and retail health clinics, and hospital emergency rooms to obtain the routine care they should be receiving from their primary care provider.
These settings often offer what primary care practices are unable to deliver— walk-in care requiring no appointment, convenient locations, and consumer-friendly hours. Urgent and retail health clinics are typically staffed by physician assistants or nurse practitioners and supervised remotely by doctors. This allows these clinics to offer lower fees, which is increasingly attractive to patients without insurance and those newly unemployed.
However, the upturn in patients utilizing urgent and retail health clinics often leads to increased fragmentation and uncoordinated medical care for patients, poor follow up after treatment, and in the event of more serious acute illnesses—a referral back to their primary care physician. Additionally, patients increasingly relying on emergency rooms has led to overcrowding and reduced availability for those who need emergency services most, and higher system-wide costs due to an upturn in hospital readmissions rates.
For a concise overview, check out Deloitte recently updated Retail Clinic Report.
