And now comes retail health care in the form of a doctor’s office in the store called Instaclinic loved by patients but not so much by doctors.
The Instaclinic is open 7 days a week with no appointment needed. They’ll even page you while you shop.
This clinic was set up last year by a family nurse practitioner, Patti Sohn, from St Louis in U.S. So far, they have three locations, two at Schnucks stores in St. Louis and one in Alton, with plans to expand. They treat a narrow scope of problems like sinus infections, ear aches, simple skin infections, and muscular skeletal strains, say media reports.
At Instaclinics, the doctor is not in. Nurse practitioners treat patients, but each center collaborates with a doctor who may be consulted by phone, and who reviews patient records every two weeks. And they say it works well. Some doctors however offer a second opinion.
Professor Tim McBride, from St. Louis University’s School of Public Health, questions relationships between clinics and stores, worried there might be a temptation to overmedicate patients because the pharmacy is right there, and especially in some cases where the store itself is a pharmacy.
But Instaclinics disagrees, saying their nurse practitioners are very competent and skilled providers and they will only prescribe if it is truly necessary. Still, Instaclinic says 60 per cent of their patients leave with a prescription.
Another concern is that Instaclincs rely on a patient’s memory and not their medical record for information about their medical history. But Instaclinics say most of their patients are not the chronically ill, but rather, healthy people who may not see a regular doctor, and that those who do almost always know what medications they are taking.
Instaclinics accept most insurance coverage. The average cost of a visit is about $60.
Schnucks is not the only place you’ll find retail health clinics, and Instaclinics is not the only company providing the service. You’ll be seeing a lot more of these clinics in places like Walgreens and even Wal-Mart. And with an estimated 800 this year, and 2000 by the end of next year, you’ll certainly be able to shop around.
Instaclinic says there are no special regulations regarding retail health clinics in Missouri. Meanwhile, a bill that would have regulated retail health clinics in Illinois died last session in committee.
