Retail clinics could double over the next three years, from the current 1,400 or so locations to more than 2,800, according to a report by Accenture.
Following booming growth ranging from 50 to 442 percent in the years ranging from 2001 to 2008, the rate of increase for the number of retail clinics began to nearly stagnate at 1 percent in 2009 and was just 5 percent last year, according to the report. That slowdown was fueled in part by uncertainty about how health reform would play out. Patient use was lower than expected and used for a narrow spectrum of services, such as vaccinations, which tend to follow seasonal cycles and receive low reimbursement rates.
Part of the reason for the low adoption rate by customers, Accenture posits, is a lack of partnerships between retail clinics and the hospitals and health systems that fear their encroachment on market share. But as hospitals question how they'll meet the deluge of demand from patients that some predict will occur when health reform kicks in full blast next year, the management consulting firm argues hospitals stand to gain from adopting a friendlier view toward retail clinics.
"With hospitals' [emergency rooms] facing capacity constraints, referring lower-acuity cases to retail clinics could be one way to manage demand," an attractive strategy for as many as 10.8 million annual patients nationwide who may enjoy the clinics' convenient locations and operating hours. They can perform such services more cost effectively, as well, generating $800 million per year in savings from overall health expenditures, the report found.
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