Retailing in Healthcare

2006-11-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

Conclusion/Summary of “Retailing in Healthcare”

The idea of retailing in healthcare may not seem like a topic that is discussed heavily in the healthcare system, but all of the evidence that we have given about healthcare such as, healthcare given in stores, access of healthcare, and competition between retail stores that provide healthcare, suggests that this topic is not diminutive. Our main objective throughout this blogging assignment has been to inform ourselves, as well as others, about the various factors of healthcare given in retail store locations. Healthcare servicing in stores has become a very popular form of healthcare, whether from Kmart, Target, Walmart, or Costco. Simply Retail is the founder of Healthcare Retail, and they have a website, http://simplyretailinc.com/, that offers information about their origin and motives behind the idea of opening healthcare centers in stores.
The stores mentioned above are only some of the many stores that offer healthcare services on-site. The reasons for this are obvious; more money for the stores, and discount costs for the customers. This sounds like a win-win situation, but we also discuss some win-lose situations that result from “Retailing in Healthcare,” such as, how the quicker and cheaper in-store healthcare services can only be possible for those patients who are seeking easy, less risky medical procedures.
In the future, we believe that more and more retail stores will include pharmacies, and along with these pharmacies will come healthcare services. Retailing in healthcare has been a cheaper, and easier way for low-income patients to seek the proper healthcare they need without waiting in long lines, paying double the price for healthcare, or even being on a waiting list for weeks to see the next available physician.
Our personal experiences with healthcare services provided in retail stores is a positive one. Some of us have received these healthcare services at one of the retail stores mentioned above, and are completely satisfied and we feel safe knowing that we are getting quality healthcare for a lower price.

References

http://simplyretailinc.com/

Group 1

Michelle Au
Sara Ca
Kari Fl
Diane Fu
Janet Co
Shakeitha He

2006-11-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

If the discount chains are successful, how will their impact affect the organization and delivery of healthcare?

Healthcare has emerged to specialized facilities such as urgent care centers. Today the latest addition of such niche markets is the introduction of retail health clinics. Retail healthcare will affect all involved in the healthcare system; including the patient, physician, insurance providers, and pharmaceutical companies. In turn, affecting how healthcare as a whole is organized and delivered. The consumer (patient) is less likely to view healthcare as a hassle and inconvenience in their life. Healthcare may have been viewed by some as a luxury, but now can be accessible to individuals of various socioeconomic backgrounds. The result is that receiving such care may prevent complications that could have developed due to lack of care or allows the care giver to refer patients whose condition are more severe.

However, some doctors and consumers have raised concerns as to quality of care being provided in the name of convenience and reduced costs. In some instances, the pharmacy clinic relationship may create some conflicts of interest. The American Medical Association released a report stating that retail clinics could lead to inconsistent care and that consumers were concerned of quality. Particular concern should be taken when interacting with elderly and pediatric patients, as well as those with chronic conditions and/or on a variety of prescribed medications. In my opinion, the idea of retail care seems to produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people; but I can not help to wonder about the legal implications that coincide with it.

If the health clinics are proven to be successful, healthcare will become revolutionized. In a society where customer satisfaction and convenience is highly sought, why should healthcare be any different? I imagine that with the success of the clinics, retail healthcare as its own entity will continue to evolve, becoming more diverse and creative all with the consumer in mind.

References

American Medical Association. Report of the Council on Medical Service. Retrieved Nov
9,2006,from http://search.amaassn.org/Search/query.html?qc=public+amnews+pubs&qt=report+on+retail+clinics

http://www.chcf.org/documents/policy/HealthCareInTheExpressLaneRetailClinics.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/business/14clinic.html?

Schmit,J.Could walk-in retail clinics help slow rising health costs ?USA Today.Retrieved Nov 1, 2006, from, http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2006-08-24-walk- inclinic-usat_x.htm

Michelle Au

Sara Co

Janet Co

Diane Fu

Kari Fl

Shakeitha He

2006-11-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

Retailing in Healthcare's Impact on Cost, Quality, and Access

and

Walmart and Target's Competitors

This week we will focus on the cost, quality, and access components of Retailing Healthcare as well as one of Wal-Mart and Target’s major competitors, the physician practices.
The growing emergence of clinics in retail settings offers patients affordable healthcare for routine medical issues and preventative care. Retail clinics provide greater affordability than physician’s offices and emergency rooms and they accept most forms of insurance. Even without insurance, costs are reasonable; treatment for a common illness such as a bladder or ear infection would range from $49-$59.
The clinics offer 15-minute sessions on a first come first served basis with no appointments and no waiting. Since patients will be able to seek medical attention when their own physicians are not accessible, they will not be clogging up emergency rooms with minor illnesses. This will allow hospitals to treat real emergencies in a more expedient manner. Access to health services will be better for both patients who go to the clinics and patients who go to the hospitals.
Retail clinics also provide high levels of quality. For example, MinuteClinic has formed a National Clinical Quality Advisory Council to bring together nationally recognized health care leaders from a variety of specialties and backgrounds to contribute strategic creativity, clinical guidance, and quality improvement ideas and to evaluate the company’s current clinical performance. MinuteClinics are also regulated by a variety of agencies and are licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Due to these reductions in costs, increased access to services, and improved quality, physician practices are being forced to compete with the burgeoning retail clinics. Many practitioners feel threatened by in-store clinics and cite concerns about the quality of care provided by physicians who are not “familiar with a patient’s medical and pharmaceutical history” (Abelson, 2006). Despite their reservations about retail clinics, many physicians are preparing to contend with the leaders of the new industry, Target and Wal-Mart, by improving access to services, decreasing the costs of visits and treatments, improving quality offered and even, possibly, expanding services to include subspecialist work, such as colonoscopies (Bachman, 2006).

References

Abelson, Jenn. (July 14, 2006). CVS looks to buy operator of in-store clinics. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, 1. Retrieved, September 26, 2006 from ABI/INFORM Dateline database.

Bachman J. (2006, May). What do retail clinics mean for family medicine? Family Pracitce Management, 13 (5), 19-20.

Birchall, J. (2006). Financial Times. London (UK): Take Care to roll out retail healthcare model FUNDRAISING; [ASIA EDITION] pg 20. Retrieved October 10, 2006 from
http://proquest.umi.com.ucfproxy.fcla.edu/pqdweb?RQT

Crounse, B. (2006). Healthcare goes retail: In-and-out check-ups. Retrieved October 10, 2006 from http://www.microsoft.com/industry/healthcare/providers/businessvalue/housecalls/retailhealthcare.mspx#ENC

Msfmillie, Retail HealthCare: Healthcare with a Consumer Focus
Close
Report this Lens
Our members are instrumental in helping to keep the Squidoo neighborhood a clean, well-lighted place! Please report this lens if it contains obscene or illegal content, if it's unquestionably a spam lens, or if it has mature content and the lens is not marked as Adult..
Sorry, you can't report your own lens.Hide this message
http://www.squidoo.com/retailhealthcarereview/

Healthcare Access; Healthcare clinics open at CVS/pharmacy stores in Columbus; Lab Business Week. Atlanta: Mar 26, 2006. p. 94. Retrieved October 10, 2006 from http://proquest.umi.com.ucfproxy.fcla.edu/pqdweb?RQT

Group 1
Michelle Au
Sara Ca
Janet Co
Kari Fl
Diane Fu
Shakeitha He

2006-10-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

Week 2 Blog: If these retail discount chains are successful-who stands to win and who stands to lose?

As health care costs continue to rise, employers and the government will continue to shift some of that burden onto employees. There will be more incentives for employees to seek out cheap health care. For example in recent years employers offered reduced copayments for generic prescriptions with higher copays for brand name drugs. So it is no surprise that consumers have responded by choosing generics. Insurers have now started to give financial incentive to use retail clinics rather than the more expensive family doctor, urgent care, or emergency rooms.
www.chcf.org Health Care in the Express Lane: The Emergence of Retail Clinics

Whether retail clinics will be a success or not is anyone’s guess at this point. However, one thing is perfectly clear. They are responding to patients need for quick, relatively cheap health care for basic ailments. So if they are a success, patients with common medical illnesses will win: cheaper and quicker than going to a doctor, or emergency room. But it needs to be stressed that patients with only the easiest health care problems – ear & sinus infections, strep throat, minor allergies, will be helped. Those that have chronic, complicated conditions will not benefit; it is beyond the scope of retail-based clinics to diagnose and treat diabetes or leukemia. So if retail clinics can help with the simple illness, perhaps there would be more time for the doctor’s offices and emergency rooms to handle the complicated cases. But some feel that this may be a problem. Alan Garber, director of Stanford University Center for Health Policy, supports the general idea of in-store clinics, but worries about the way these clinics could affect the rest of the health care system. “One of the fears that I am sure many doctors’ offices have is that the doctors will be left with the complicated patients who may not bring in much revenue but take an extraordinary amount of time.” http://abcnews.go.com/nightline/print?id=2577785 Future of Health Care or Quick Fix?
From that same article, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that it opposes the use of the retail clinics in that it worries about the “continuity of care,” the gathering of information about a patient over many visits and over multiple health care providers. “I’m concerned that some things are going to be missed,” said Dr. Denice Cora-Bramble, a pediatrician and the executive director of Community Pediatric Health at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “It’s understanding what are some of the other issues in the life of a child that impact that particular encounter.”
Consumers like what they see with these clinics:
- Most said retail health clinics could provide basic medical services when doctors’ offices were closed or couldn’t fit them into their busy schedule.
- Most agreed the clinics offered a fast, easy way to get basic medical services at very reasonable prices. (October 2005 Harris Interactive poll) http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/archive/retailclinics.printerview Retail Clinics Now Part of Health Care Landscape
The physician response was concern about quality and that their patients could be diverted away from their offices. Take Care Clinic (based in Conshohocken, PA) spokeswoman Lauren Tierney claims that they are not out to be a means of competition to the physician. She states they are looking to refer patients to physicians in communities where they are operating.
But the patient may not go to a private doctor if they feel better and don’t want to wait for an hour or more in a doctor’s office and pay an enormous fee; remember the reason they went to a retail clinic in the first place. Some have suggested that the family practice physician could join forces with the clinic, but doctors must realize to keep the prices in a clinic down, doctors are not going to get paid what they are use to.
So what about family practice physicians competing with retail clinics by offering open-access scheduling or expanding services to include evening and weekend hours? Many do that now, but the charges continue to be high.
In the poll that was mentioned earlier most respondents felt that a serious medical condition could be missed or inaccurately diagnosed in a retail health clinic and there was concern about the qualifications of the clinic’s staff. (Most are nurse practitioners, who earn about half the salary of a physician). Many patients may not want to see someone they don’t know, but I think that is the older population

Group 1

Michelle Au

Sara Ca

Janet Co

Kari Fl

Diane Fu

Shakeitha He

2006-10-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Week 1 Blog – Healthcare in WalMart & Target

With annual insurance premiums for families exceeding annual earnings at the federal minimum wage, health insurance is no longer affordable for an increasing number of people in America. Low-income employees working for large companies that offer insurance coverage often cannot afford their portion of insurance premiums. Even though these employees can’t afford insurance coverage, they (and their families) still have health care needs.
Retail clinics have opened in drugstores, grocery chains, and discount department store chains and they are attracting a great deal of attention from people who need medical care. These clinics are an attempt to respond to consumer needs for which the current health care system doesn’t offer reasonable options. Where do you go at night or weekend when you or your child has a sore throat or ear ache? Waiting for hours in the emergency room is what most of us would like to avoid, but for many it is the only choice. What about the choices faced by an uninsured person with too much income to qualify for discount care at a city clinic – be charged the full fare, or go to the ER, wait hours and still have a big bill. Even with patients with insurance and a doctor may wait several days to be seen for a minor ailment.
So the quick medical clinics are seen as option to meet consumer needs. A fast way to get medical care for a minor problem that is fast, relatively cheap, and convenient. But the clinics do not meet every health care need for all consumers. We are not talking about diabetics, cancer patients, or those suffering from heart disease. We are talking about sore throats, ear aches, colds, pink eye, female urinary tract infections, and seasonal allergies for a reasonable price of about $30 - $60
Why are these clinics placed in large pharmacies, discount department stores, and grocery stores? Because that is where the consumers are, shopping for next week groceries, a pair of shoes for the kids, or pack of band aids. It is convenient, low stress, and fast; AND you don’t have to fight with a receptionist for an appointment. One example is a lady with the sniffles went to do her shopping, stopped at a tiny clinic near the pharmacy, saw the nurse practitioner had her vital signs taken, given a prescription for sinus infection. It took 20 minutes and cost $59. Typically people that have great medical insurance and shop at Neiman Marcus don’t need to stop at a quick medical clinic. Their insurance will pay for their medical bills. But those that shop at discount stores are the ones that usually don’t have great insurance, short on money, and time. They still need medical care, so why not get it at a place that is fast and reasonable in cost?

www.chcf.org Health Care in the Express Lane: The Emergence of Retail Clinics
www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2006-08-24-walk-in-clinic-usat_x.htm
Could walk-in retail clinics help slow rising health costs?
www.post-gazette.com Retail health clinics planned for region

Group 1

Michelle Au
Sara Ca
Janet Co
Kari Fl
Diane Fu
Shakeitha He

2006-10-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Overview of "Retailing in Healthcare"

Almost everyone has had strep throat or an ear infection and for many patients they know exactly what is wrong with them as soon as the infection sets in, and when this is the case they want to be seen by a health care provider and receive a prescription as soon as possible. Often times, these patients don’t have the time or ability to make a specific appointment and take off work for this somewhat routine procedure; however, if retail companies were able to provide these services on a walk-in basis a patient could easily stop by while picking up dinner. This innovative way of treating patients is only the beginning of what appears to be an evolution in health care. No longer is health care just focusing on treating sick patients, but now a huge part of providing medical services is the customer service aspect, which is something that retail stores know best.

By venturing into healthcare industry, retailers such as CVS Pharmacy, Walmart, and Target claim that they can provide quality healthcare at more affordable prices and in more convenient situations. While the corporations do have a lot to gain from this new concept, companies such as Walmart are stating that this is not about expanding their corporation, instead they are only trying to venture into this business to make healthcare as affordable as possible (Frazier, 2005). Today, many patients want to be quickly treated for a problem that they view as very routine. This is going to be made possible by staffing popular retail companies with nurse practitioners. Throughout 2006 Publix will be doing just that by opening a string of “Little Clinics” throughout their supermarkets. Orlando will be one of the first cities to have Publix stores opening “Little Clinics” where nurse practitioners will be able to write prescriptions for common problems. They expect that this cost may be almost half of what it would be to see a doctor (Publix to Offer Healthcare With Shopping, February 6, 2006).

Retail stores will be able to market to customers by providing these simplistic medical services at discounted rates, by offering only a very narrow set of services, performing these services in large quantities, providing these services in the convenient location of their already existing buildings and by hiring providers such as nurse practitioners that may have slightly less education, requiring less pay, but still enough knowledge to treat the patient.

While patients are setting out to receive faster, more efficient care, they may also encounter some negative effects. All of these clinics are opening on the basis that they can improve quality, access, and decrease costs, but the truth is with convenience comes costs (. Already in America there is fragmentation in our healthcare delivery system. This will only continue to increase if patients consistently seek assistance from different medical professionals. According to Landro (2006), “Last month the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians warned that retail clinics with no ties to health-care systems could lead to more fragmentation of patient care, inadequate follow-up for patients, and missed opportunities for preventive care” (D1).

Bachman J. (2006, May). What do retail clinics mean for family medicine? Family Pracitce Management, 13 (5), 19-20.Frazier, Mya. (2005, November 28). Need to see a doctor? Try Target or Wal-Mart. Advertising Age, 76 (48).Landro, L. (2006, July 26). The New Force in Walk In Clinics. The Wall Street Journal, pp. D1, D2.Publix to Offer Health Care With Shopping. (2006, February 6). The Tampa Bay Business Journal. https://webmail.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftampabay.bizjournals.com%2Ftampabay%2Fstories%2F2006%2F02%2F06%2Fdaily2.html

Group 1
Michelle Au
Sara Ca
Janet Co
Kari Fl
Diane Fu
Shakeitha He

2006-10-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog on Retailing in Healthcare!