The state Department of Public Health said yesterday it has approved licenses for the first two clinics. The decision follows more than a year of debate about whether to allow this new model of medical care in Massachusetts and strong opposition from doctors. CVS has applied for licenses for medical clinics in 26 additional stores, and Walgreens Pharmacy has submitted plans for competing clinics in 15 of its Eastern Massachusetts stores.
You’ve got that telltale tickle in your throat again, and you’re pretty sure it’s not just another cold. But your doctor’s office says the next open appointment is in two weeks. You’re traveling for business in another city. You don’t have a primary care physician to call. You’re self-employed and don’t have health insurance.
For all these reasons and more, potential patients are turning increasingly to retail clinics to cure their minor ailments.
According to a 2008 report by Mary Kate Scott of Scott & Co., the number of retail clinics in the United States grew from 150 to nearly 700 clinics last year. Renting space in drugstore chains such as CVS and Walgreens, major retailers such as Wal-Mart, and even hospitals, the clinics are filling a need for convenience, cost and a more consumer-like approach to health care.
When Raleigh Werner first heard about clinics that offer basic health care inside pharmacies and grocery stores, his reaction was something along the lines of “Yuck.”
The 19-year-old Colby College student agrees that many in the United States need better access to health care, and he understands that such clinics could help fill that need. He just doesn’t think the solution is for people to be going to the same place they buy apples to get checked out for eczema.
After all, he argues, you wouldn’t go to the hospital to buy clothes.
“I just don’t know about mixing those two environments in the same place,” he said.
John White was running a low fever, his sinuses and ears felt full and he was tired, so he walked into a Bradenton medical clinic.
Valerie Fortunato asked a series of questions about his medical history, then performed an examination including checking his ears, eyes and throat, and listening to his lungs and heart.
In about 30 minutes, White left with a diagnosis of a sinus infection and prescriptions for antibiotics, antihistamine and a nasal steroid.
Fortunato is an advanced registered nurse practitioner, and her clinic is a gray-walled box inside a Publix supermarket.
Welcome to another facet of the future of medicine.
When retail clinics promised to be the next big thing in medical care, everyone from start-ups to national retailers opened their own versions of the walk-in clinics.
Often little more than a kiosk in a pharmacy, the clinics are staffed by a nurse practitioner treating simple ailments such as strep throat.
Now the building boom is leveling off, with several high-profile players closing outlets around the country. Those in the industry say it was simply supply outstripping demand, with too many clinics opening too quickly.
The industry, started eight years ago in Minnesota with a MinuteClinic precursor, is going through a mini shakeout.