Dive Brief:
- The proportion of retail clinics owned by hospital systems doubled (from 9% to 18%) between 2007 and 2010, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change.
- Major hospital systems such as Pennsylvania's Geisinger Health System, the Mayo Clinic and California-based Sutter Health are among those having opened their own retail clinics.
- Hospitals see the clinics not only as a means of meeting high-volume urgent care demands, but also as feeders to hospitals' other services.
Dive Insight:
For several years now, retail clinics have been quietly finding a place in healthcare delivery, largely in drugstores like CVS, but still, they're a business that never quite expanded the way observers expected. However, with the entry of high-profile hospital systems into the mix, we may be seeing the long-delayed expansion of such clinics into the mainstream of healthcare. In addition to serving as hospital feeders, retail clinics are likely to serve hospitals well financially, as a means of delivering affordable care to patients with high-deductible insurance plans. All in all, this seems like a positive development,