A couple of [physician] colleagues recently vented about the proliferation of retail [medical] clinics. Not only do they fragment patient care and decrease the ability to follow growth and development, they also are more likely to decrease the number of folks willing to become physicians. Often these retail clinics are staffed by unsupervised mid-levels (non-physician health care professionals). These clinics “skim off” treatment of the easy stuff leaving the much more complex, time consuming and less profitable problems to actual physicians. The problem is that with the retail clinics getting paid for the higher volume of minor illnesses, and with decreasing financial reward for taking care of the complex problems, who will want to become a physician anymore? I think we should all contact our respective State medical boards to address this issue. If they do not, the future of continuity of care looks dim.
The battle is with the insurance companies & the government. Those two will continue to push patients to the least expensive choice regardless if it is the best for the patient. The only thing that will truly reverse this trend is an outcry against it. Will that be from concerned physicians or from the family of dead patients?
It’s nearly impossible to find well-informed people about this subject, however, you seem like you
know what you’re talking about! Thanks