Retail Clinic Visits Continue Climb

Visits to retail clinics increased 403% from 2007 to 2009, and about 44.4% of those visits occurred during hours when physician offices are typically closed, according to a report posted online by Health Affairs.

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Source: ModernHealthcare.com

The report, which includes data from CVS Caremark Corp.-owned MinuteClinic, Walgreens-owned Take Care Health Systems, and Kroger Co.-owned Little Clinic, stated that there were 1.48 million retail clinic visits in 2007, 3.52 million in 2008, and 5.97 million in 2009. The authors, researchers from the Rand Corp. and the University of Pittsburgh, noted that the study does not include patient-visit data from 2010, the year retail clinics made chronic disease management a focus.