Kaiser Permanente's partnership with Target shows that health systems don't have to sacrifice quality of care for convenience, a Permanente Federation executive wrote in Medical Economics.
The Oakland, Calif.-based health system has 35 clinics at Target stores in southern California, offering patients the type of easy-to-access retail healthcare they crave and giving Kaiser Permanente members another access point, according to the July 26 article by Ramin Davidoff, MD, executive medical director and chair of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group and co-CEO of the Permanente Federation.
"Return rates to primary and urgent care after a visit to a Target Clinic are just slightly higher than that of adult primary care, which demonstrates that the clinics are resolving most patient problems effectively," Dr. Davidoff wrote. "That fact alone suggests we are expanding healthcare capacity for the whole health system."
While the clinics are open to all patients, Kaiser Permanente members have the added benefit of being connected to their medical records through the health system's EHR and can have follow-up appointments scheduled for them there for other Kaiser providers, he said.