PITTSBURGH, Sep 3, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Retail medical clinics in
pharmacies and stores can provide routine care at lower cost than other
facilities and offer similar quality, U.S. researchers said.
The Rand Corp. compared the medical care provided in different settings for
patients with middle ear infections, sore throats and urinary tract infections.
The Rand researchers found no difference in the quality offered to patients
visiting retail clinics, physician offices and urgent care centers, but retail
clinics did slightly better than hospital emergency departments.
"These findings provide more evidence that retail clinics are an innovative new
way of delivering health care," lead author Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a professor at
the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a researcher at the Rand
Corp., said in a statement. "Retail clinics are more convenient for patients,
less costly and provide care that is of equal quality as received in other
medical settings."
There are almost 1,000 such clinics in the United States and about one-third of
urban Americans live within a 10-minute drive of a retail medical clinic, the
researchers said.
The findings are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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