Retail Clinics More Apt To Serve Wealthy Neighborhoods
MAY 26, 2009
New research about geographic distribution of retail clinics conducted by Craig Pollack, MD, MHS, an internist and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, is highlighted in Associated Press and Reuters stories. Proponents of the clinics, which offer walk-in appointments with extended evening and weekend hours, usually at cheaper prices than doctor's offices or emergency rooms, say they could serve as a way to improve care for uninsured or underserved populations. Pollack's study, which appears this week in Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that these clinics -- more than 1,000 of which have been opened inside drug stores and supermarkets across the nation in recent years -- are more likely to exist in wealthier census tracts that are not classified as medically underserved. Pollack suggests that offering incentives for chain operators to open these clinics within stores located in poorer neighborhoods could boost access to services. Katrina Armstrong, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Senior Scholar, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, is the co-author of the new study. The stories appeared in newspapers including the Kansas City Star and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and on the web sites for Forbes magazine and ABC News.
