Hospital-Affiliated and Hospital-Owned Retail Clinics: Strategic Opportunities and Operational Challenges

AAP Principles Concerning Retail-Based Clinics

“…Hospital and health care systems are increasingly partnering with or establishing their own RBCs to capture or increase market share and provide other avenues of accessibility for their patients because of increasing shortages of primary care physicians in their networks and service areas. 14,16 Insurance companies have also started expanding into opening their own full primary care centers with referral arrangements to specialists for identified problems. 17 Many RBCs have protocols in place to refer patients who do not have primary care physicians or medical homes to a physician and provide correspondence of the patient' s visit to those who have identified a primary care physician.…”

Hospital-Owned Retail Clinics in the United States: Operations, Patients and Marketing

“…This finding stresses the importance of understanding that the retail clinic business is different from other modes of healthcare delivery, and that different marketing and promotion approaches have to be used in order to grow a clinic. It also may indicate that some hospital systems do not view retail clinics as profit-making entities on their own, but rather as a downstream referral source and a release valve for overwhelmed primary care physicians and overcrowded emergency rooms [8].…”

“…However, the need for clinical expertise and legitimacy has driven some hospital systems to affiliate with retail clinics, or to own retail clinics while leasing space from a retailer [8]. According to Kaissi [1]: "For retail clinics that have linkages with a hospital system, the two common models of operations include a partnership/affiliation between the retail chain and the hospital system, or full ownership of the retail clinic by the hospital system.…”

“…The system decides on the location of the clinics, employs the clinicians, and pays rent to the retail chain for the space provided. "The main strategic reasons behind the systems' associations with retail clinics are to increase market share through enhanced referrals to physician offices and hospitals, to become closer to consumers, and to experiment with non-traditional ways of delivering health care [8]. The total number of hospital systems currently involved in retail clinics (through affiliation or ownership) has reached 83 [2].…”

The Advance of the Retail Health Clinic Market: The Liability Risk physicians May potentially Face when supervising or Collaborating With Other Professionals

“…7 Reasons suggested for the rapid increase in retail health clinics include overcrowded emergency departments, the increasing shortage of primary care physician ranks (estimated shortage of 40,000 family practice physicians by 2025), the impact that increased insurance costs have on patient access to physician clinics, and patient-consumer demands for improved convenience and affordability. 8 McKinlay and Marceau 9 reported that the decrease in the number of primary care physicians practicing in the United States will coincide with an increase in patients seeking care at retail clinics. By 2025, it is thought that many "everyday illnesses" will be managed by either patient access to self-help through the Internet or by nonphysicians practicing in retail health clinic settings.…”