By Healthcare Facilities Today

The percent of American families using retail clinics in the previous year nearly tripled between 2007 and 2010, from 1.2 percent of U.S. families to 2.9 percent, according to new report by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a non-partisan policy research group. 

In an article on the Kaiser Health News website, Ha T. Tu, a senior health researcher for the center and one of the study’s co-authors, said one reason clinics haven’t taken off is that patients who already have a primary care doctor don’t see a need to visit one.

“Even though consumers over time have become more comfortable with the idea of using clinic services in a retail setting, there’s still some resistance or discomfort,” Tu said in the article. “The trust in retail clinics as a place to get high quality care is not a universal thing. A lot of people would still rather use their own regular primary care provider.” 

The study found that the main reasons patients chose to use retail health clinics included the convenience of evening and weekend hours walk-in appointments and nearby locations, the article said.

Retail clinics have done a better job making themselves convenient to higher income families, the article said. The study found 37 percent of families with incomes at least six times the poverty level lived near a retail clinic in 2010 compared to 25 percent with incomes no more than twice the poverty level.

Read the article.