Retail clinic

A retail clinic is a category of walk-in clinic located in retail stores, supermarkets and pharmacies that treat uncomplicated minor illnesses and provide preventative health care services. They are sometimes called "retail-based clinics," "convenient care clinics," or "nurse-in-a-box." Retail clinics are usually staffed by nurse practitioners (NPs) or physician assistants (PAs) and do not necessarily have a doctor physically available onsite. Some, however, are staffed by physicians.

As of December 2015, there are more than 2,000 retail clinics located in 41 states and Washington, DC in the United States. Retail clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants and most are open seven days a week – twelve hours a day during the workweek and eight hours a day on the weekend.To date, retail clinics have provided care through more than 35 million patient visits and have the capacity to provide care through over 10 million patient visits per year. It is estimated that the number of retail clinics will increase dramatically in the near future, with the total number of clinics surpassing 2800 by 2017.

A major driver of the walk-in clinic growth trend is the focus on cost. As more patients with higher deductibles seek out care options, the reduced cost of retail settings is a viable option for routine care. For example, according to one analysis, the typical cost of diagnosing an earache was $59 at a retail or walk-in provider, $95 in doctor's office, $135 at urgent care, $184 in an emergency room.^{[Dead link]}

A 2015 Report released by Manatt and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Building a Culture of Health: The Value Proposition of Retail Clinics, finds that consumer demand for clinics is growing and the potential for future success is substantial. Among the major reasons why consumers choose to receive care at retail clinics are convenient hours, not needing to make an appointment to be seen by a provider, convenient location, and lower costs of services. Research has shown that the quality of the care received at retail clinics is comparable to, if not better than when the same care is provided in more traditional settings such as doctor's offices and emergency departments. One of the strongest indicators of retail health's expanding role in the healthcare landscape is the increasing number of partnerships between clinics and hospitals and health systems. To date, there are more than 100 of these partnerships throughout the country and this number is expected to grow.

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