What price convenience?: Apparently a higher willingness to pay
While we are undergoing a primary care crisis and losing vast numbers of physicians into the specialties, convenient care clinics are popping up like wildflowers, raising the ire of the AMA and the fears of the primary care docs who are left.
While doctors see these as low cost, low trained options, some data I gleaned from a presentation done by Mary Kate Scott and the California Healthcare Foundation sheds some interesting new light on consumer demand for convenient care. (for those interested in more information, there are two reports commissioned on this topic by CHCF: Emergence of Retail Clinics and Retail Clinics go Mainstream)
First off, consumers are very happy with convenience and quality of care occuring at the retail clinic locations. While physicians may complain about the lower diagnostic qualifications of NPs, most consumers find the convenience of the clinic far superior to long lines for short visits with the doctor. In fact, one may say that physicians have provided a level of training that is overkill for minor issues, and that finding alternative providers who truly enjoy this type of bread and butter practice may better address these simple issues.
