Friend or Foe?
Quick-Access Clinics are Becoming Reality. Better Learn to Compete
By Abigail Green A woman stops by her local Target on her way home from work. With errands to run, dinner to make, and kids in tow, she doesn't have time to attend to the sinus infection that seems to have cropped up overnight. Except that if she's shopping at one of MinuteClinic's 61 locations throughout the country, she can be seen by a nurse practitioner, fill her prescription, and be on her way in less than an hour — no appointment, and no doctor, necessary.
Launched in Minnesota in 2002, MinuteClinic is a mini healthcare office set up inside supermarkets and pharmacies including CVS and Target. The rapidly expanding company is currently operating in seven states. The competing Take Care Health launched in Portland, Ore., in October 2005 and plans to open 1,300 clinics in Rite Aid, Osco Drugs, and Brooks/Eckerd pharmacies by the end of 2007. Other, similar projects are cropping up all over.
Most follow a similar model: the clinics are staffed entirely by nurse practitioners (NPs) or physician assistants (PAs) who treat about two dozen common ailments, including strep throat, pink eye, and ear, bladder, and sinus infections, as well as provide certain health screenings and immunizations. Most clinics operate seven days a week, have evening hours, and see patients age 18 months and up entirely on a walk-in basis. Both claim any wait time is minimal. At MinuteClinic, patients pay $44 or an insurance copay. At Take Care Health, fees range from $48 to $68 per visit.
Is this bad news for primary-care physicians, or a much-needed jolt to a healthcare system that's failing to meet patients' need for convenient, affordable care?
