Are Drug Store Clinics Safe? News Report

Clip thanks to www.healthstride.net The concept has been called urgent care “lite” Patients who are tired of waiting days to see a doctor for bronchitis, pinkeye or a sprained ankle can instead walk into a nearby drugstore and, at lower cost, with brief waits, see a doctor or a nurse and then fill a prescription on the spot. With demand for primary care doctors surpassing the supply in many parts of the country, the number of these retail clinics in drugstores has exploded over the past two years, and several companies operating them are now aggressively seeking to open clinics in New York City. But with their increasing popularity, the clinics are drawing mounting scrutiny. Several states including New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and California are examining ways to more closely monitor the clinics, which are overseen by a hodgepodge of state agencies applying a wide and inconsistent range of regulations. More than 700 clinics are operating across the country at chain stores including Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens and Duane Reade. New York State regulators are investigating the business relationships between drugstore companies and medical providers to determine whether the clinics are being used improperly to increase business or steer patients to the pharmacies in which the clinics are located. And doctors’ groups, whose members stand to lose business from the clinics, are citing concerns about standards of care, safety and hygiene, and they have urged the …