Walk-In Clinics Pick Up Steam

Although the long-term issues are still unknown, walk-in clinics in grocery and drug stores are exploding in growth, with large medical systems now getting into the action. The Wall St. Journal has a good round-up of the trends and players.

WSJ.com: The Informed Patient, 2006-Jul-26, by Laura Landro (pay)

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Minnesota, which analyzed 22,956 visits by its members to MinuteClinics from June 2004 to June 2005, found the clinics cost about half an office visit -- or $43 versus $87 -- and less than half for other related costs such as lab services.

Chris Shandrow, a 29-year-old creative-arts director at a local church, sought care for a pesky sinus infection at a Walgreens clinic operated by Take Care, when he first moved to the Kansas City area with his wife and children without a primary-care doctor. He was in and out with a prescription within 10 minutes and was charged a $20 co-pay. "I know I'm going to need to get a regular doctor, but the convenience of being able to pop in there was really worth it," he says.