Will the public really care about fragmentation of care, or will they think that convenience takes priority?
Not that many are convinced this trend is good for patients. Within the past six months, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have both decried it.“Convenience is not enough,” the AMA lamented in a recent editorial. Comparing the mini-clinic phenomenon to kudzu — the tree-strangling vine rampant in the South — the AMA complained these new services are spreading too far, too fast. In a policy statement issued this fall, the AAP “opposes retail-based clinics as an appropriate source of medical care for infants, children, and adolescents and strongly discourages their use.”
As traditional medicine sees it, when a young patient gets hurry-up treatment for a single symptom at a retail-based clinic (RBC), also known as a convenient care clinic (CCC), the process leads to “fragmentation of care.”
Related posts:
- Flea to the AAP: Suck it up
- Should primary care doctors embrace retail clinics?
- Quickie medical clinics: Are their days numbered?
- Retail clinic growing pains
- The AMA takes on retail clinics
- Retail clinics and cherry-picking
- Are retail clinics living up to expectations?
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The latest salvo of a corrupt organization attempting to maintain its stranglehold on the health care oligopoly. The AAP can oppose access to health care until they are blue in the face and have choked on their anti-access to care bile. The genie is out of the bottle and hopefully will result in the development of some competition for the status quo.
Many of the pediatricians and internists I know in town tell their patients to go these “mini-clinics” for sore throats.
Health insurance ruined any chance that “a sore throat visit is change to develop a deeper relationship with the doctor.”
People pay for things they think are worthwhile, be that milk, a haircut, cocaine or a car. If patients thought a doctor visit was a better value than a minute clinic, the minute clincs would not exist.
Let’s be honest here. This has nothing to do with concern over “fragmentation of care.” This has everything to do with concern over losing patients to walk-in clinics. I like my physician and he provides good care, BUT if I have to wait a week for a UTI I’m headed for a walk-in clinic. I’m fairly certain I can pee in a cup and an NP can determine if there’s bacteria or not. I like the convenience. I like not having to wait a week for an appointment. I like that I don’t have to sit in a waiting room for hours before being seen. I have insurance but have paid out of pocket for the conveniences of a walk-in clinic and will likely do it again.
some video of health care conference panel discussions on convenient care: http://health.scribemedia.org/2007/01/10/convenient-care-who-is-the-primary-healthcare-provider/
A Nurse Practitioner who works at a retail-based clinic responds to the latest AAP policy paper at http://narcp.blogspot.com
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