Retail Clinics Provide Same Quality of Care for Routine Illnesses at Lower Cost, Pitt Study Finds
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2009 – Retail medical clinics in pharmacies and stores provide care for routine illnesses at a lower cost and similar quality compared to other medical settings, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and RAND Corp. study in the September issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study, the first to assess the quality of care provided in retail medical clinics in the U.S., compared 2,100 patients treated for middle ear infections, sore throats and urinary tract infections at retail clinics in Minnesota in 2005 and 2006 to those treated for the same ailments in physician offices, urgent care centers and hospital emergency rooms.
Researchers found no difference in the quality of care patients received. Additionally, the costs of treating those illnesses at retail clinics were 30 to 40 percent lower than in physician offices or urgent care centers and 80 percent lower than in hospital emergency rooms. The differences were caused primarily by lower payments for professional services and lower rates of laboratory testing. Care at retail clinics is most often provided by nurse practitioners rather than physicians.
“These findings provide more evidence that retail clinics are an innovative way to deliver health care,” said lead author Ateev Mehrotra, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “Retail clinics are more convenient for patients, less costly and provide care that is of equal quality as received in other medical settings.”
The researchers found that patients who visited a retail clinic were no more likely to receive a prescription for antibiotics than in the other settings – a concern frequently expressed by medical professionals because many retail clinics are owned by pharmacies. In addition, patients treated in retail clinics received preventive care over the following three months at about the same rate as patients treated elsewhere.
“We need to continue to examine retail medical clinics as they grow in number, but the results we have seen thus far suggest they are a way to provide high-quality care for many ailments in a convenient and cost-effective fashion,” Mehrotra said.
In a second study also published in the September issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, RAND researchers note there are almost 1,000 retail medical clinics in the United States and that about one-third of urban Americans live within a 10-minute drive of a retail medical clinic.
The study also found that more enterprises are beginning to operate retail medical clinics. While three for-profit companies, including industry leader MinuteClinic, operate about 70 percent of the nation’s retail medical clinics, an increasing number of hospital chains and physician groups are becoming involved.
Funding for both studies was provided by the California HealthCare Foundation.
Co-authors of the studies are Rena Rudavsky, Hangsheng Liu, John L. Adams, Margaret C. Wang, Craig Evan Pollack and Elizabeth A. McGlynn of RAND; Judith R. Lave, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health; and N. Marcus Thygeson and Leif I. Solberg of the HealthPartners Research Foundation.
About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
As one of the nation’s leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1997 and now ranks fifth in the nation, according to preliminary data for fiscal year 2008. Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region’s economy. For more information, visit the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine web site.