Abstract
Retail clinics are walk-in clinics located in grocery stores and retail pharmacies and providing care for minor conditions. Hospital systems have recently started owning and operating them. No studies have to our knowledge described hospital-owned clinics. In this paper, we assess the operational issues, types of conditions treated and types of marketing approaches used by hospital-owned retail clinics. Data on 19 health systems that own and operate retail clinics was collected by Merchant Medicine. Only 4 out of 19 hospital systems reported that their first owned retail clinic was operating at breakeven. About one third of the patients treated are cash-pay patients while half are covered by private health insurance plans. The clinics tend to focus on a few limited conditions such as upper respiratory infections, allergies, minor skin conditions, and physical exams and shots. A small minority of the patient population is very young (under 5) or very old (over 65), with the other age segments almost equally represented. Patients that visit the clinics seem to have heard about it especially through word of mouth. The health systems invest modestly in some marketing media such as print, radio and billboard advertising, Internet, direct mail and sponsoring of community events. Retail clinics can play an important role for hospital systems in the future, especially as part of a larger primary care strategy.
Highlights
Retail clinics are walk-in clinics located in grocery stores and retail pharmacies and providing care for minor conditions [1]
We focus on hospital-owned clinics, and ask the following questions: What operational issues are faced by hospital-owned retail clinics?
The mean number of retail clinics owned by a health system is 3.1, and most of them own one (30%) or two clinics (30%)
Summary
Retail clinics are walk-in clinics located in grocery stores and retail pharmacies and providing care for minor conditions [1]. They have been in operation in the United States since 2000, with major growth taking place between 2006 and 2008. A recent study found that retail clinics visits have increased fourfold from 2007 to 2009, with an estimated 5.97 million retail clinic visits in 2009 [3] This only make up a small share (0.86%) of overall visits (697 million visits) in the outpatient setting, comprised of 117 million visits to emergency departments and 577 million visits to physician offices annually [3]. The care provided is very convenient as the clinics are located in settings already visited multiple times per week by patients, and no appointments are necessary. ‘’A menu of services is offered, with average fees of about $78 per visit [4]
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