Content about Emergency medicine

Shifting patients away from hospital emergency rooms and into retail-based and urgent care walk-in clinics can significantly lower healthcare costs, improve access to care and reduce the impact of such chronic diseases as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, two health benefits experts asserted in a recent online presentation.

As the healthcare landscape continues to undergo significant changes, a new report by Marketdata Enterprises puts a number against a highly valuable and fast-growing segment of health care that will continue to grow regardless of who is elected president and what happens to healthcare reform: retail-based health clinics.


The September 2012 report, titled “The Market for Retail Health Clinics and Urgent Care Centers,” examined the operations of both convenient care clinics and urgent care centers.


PHILADELPHIA — Independence Blue Cross announced that it has expanded members' access to care by adding coverage for treatment at urgent care centers and retail clinics, and also has developed a new Web tool to help members locate these facilities.

The new Web tool is designed to make it easier for members to find urgent care centers and retail clinics for care for nonemergency conditions when their personal physicians are not available, like evenings and weekends.

TAMPA, Fla. — The retail health clinic and urgent care center market currently is worth about $10 billion and is poised for strong growth in the coming years as the shortage of primary care physicians and crowded emergency rooms increasingly move patients to retail sites, according to new data by Marketdata Enterprises, an independent market research publisher.

Can you feel that? 


It’s the seismic shift that currently is occurring in health care in this country. And really, it’s just a tremor. The intense stuff isn’t expected to hit until 2014.


That’s why we’re creating “Patient Views” (see page 6), a new department that will be featured Upfront in every issue of DSN and in every edition of our daily 
e-newsletter, DSN A.M.


BOSTON — Massachusetts lawmakers passed a massive healthcare bill that seeks to control healthcare costs and expands the services of limited-service clinics to allow for anything within the scope of practice for a nurse practitioner.

The legislation, which Gov. Deval Patrick said he would sign into law, includes an array of other cost-curbing provisions and is estimated to save as much as $200 billion in healthcare spending over the next 15 years.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The other side of the retail clinic phenomenon is urgent care, which also is growing as the need for alternative sites of care becomes more apparent, and providers look to fill the gaps in health care. This is why it is important to note the news of Solantic’s expansion plans.

(THE NEWS: Solantic announces statewide hiring. For the full story, click here)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Take Care Health Systems and Memorial Health on Tuesday announced a new relationship that will increase opportunities for clinical collaboration and improve patient access to high-quality, convenient and affordable healthcare options in the greater Jacksonville region.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. Up to 1-in-4 emergency room visits could take place at a retail-based health clinic or urgent care center, saving potentially $4.4 billion annually, according to new research published in the September issue of Health Affairs.

Furthermore, the research found that such retail clinics as Take Care Clinics have been shown to save patients $279 to $460 per visit compared with emergency room costs.

NEW YORK Millions of patients with such acute ailments as fevers and coughs turn to the emergency room for treatment, according to researchers. The findings serve as yet one more indicator for the need of convenient and affordable health services available at retail-based clinics.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Retail clinics. Save. Money. Without regard to who’s footing the bill exactly — healthcare payer or Jane Patient — retail clinics not only represent a significant cost savings across the board, but by siphoning nonemergency-yet-still-urgent cases out of the emergency rooms and doctors’ offices, retail clinics also can contribute to improved care across the healthcare continuum.