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 Health & Beauty | September 2005 
Would You Go to a 'Quickie Clinic?'
 Associated Press
| | Ann Theisen, right, takes a break in shopping to check her daughter Hannah, 6, center, into medical care with nurse practitioner Sheryl Barthalow at a MinuteClinic at Cub Foods in Maple Grove, Minn. (Photo: Janet Hostetter) |
New clinics designed to treat common ailments in 15 minutes with no appointment necessary were set to open Monday in Indianapolis.
Owned and operated by Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic, the clinics have no doctors on-site but are staffed by nurse practitioners trained to diagnose and treat common ailments and provide basic services, such as vaccinations.
The private company is part of an emerging shift in U.S. health care that could push many routine medical tasks away from doctors' offices and emergency rooms to low-cost clinics open evenings and weekends, The Indianapolis Star reported Sunday.
Indiana has become a key testing area for the concept, with at least a dozen clinics opened or planned in the coming months.
The idea is to give patients more convenience and lower costs for common medical procedures. A flu shot goes for $30. Treating either athlete's foot or an ear infection will run $49.
Some doctors, however, worry that the clinics emphasize convenience over care.
Dr. Kevin Burke, president of the Indiana State Medical Association, said some patients might forgo visits to the doctor for the spot care of specific ailments. But regular visits to a physician can reveal major health concerns such as high cholesterol, high blood sugar or high blood pressure.
He added that it is ideal for nurse practitioners to work in the same locations as physicians, not in separate clinics such as the ones popping up in retail stores.
"In this arrangement, it's more difficult to get that supervision, that advice and that guidance," he said of the clinics.
Those operating the clinics say they are not trying to replace the family physician.
"We see ourselves as part of a team," said Bruce A. Peacock, CEO of The Little Clinic, a Louisville, Ky.-based rival to MinuteClinic. "There are times you don't need to see a family physician or he or she is not available to see you, and that's where we come in."
Indianapolis-based physician group American Health Network said Friday it is opening its first clinic, a center in the Fishers Marsh supermarket northeast of Indianapolis, in October. Dr. Ben Park, CEO of American Health Network, said his group could open up to 12 clinics in area Marsh stores over the next two years.
Clinic workers agree that it's part of a push to make health care as easy as getting a take-out meal.
"I kind of thought it was fast food for illness," nurse practitioner and new MinuteClinic employee Melissa Chriswell said of her first reaction to the approach. "You know what the cost is up front."
The clinics are popping up as people increasingly are paying more of their own health care, through reduced insurance coverage by many employers or higher co-pays. Those who run the clinics say it is also an option for those with little or no health insurance.
Officials from MinuteClinic say they are bringing to medicine what the automated teller machine brought to banking: a convenient place to handle simple tasks. People would not go to an ATM to get a mortgage, said Linda Hall Whitman, chief operating officer of MinuteClinic.
"People would not be coming to us for an appendicitis," she added. "We've carved out and specialized in a focused range of illnesses."
Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
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