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For these patients, the clinics maintain a strong referral relationship with local urgent care and primary care physicians, Garcia says. The practices return the favor. The clinics can also offer a referral to primary care doctors within a few miles' radius who are taking new patients. In a survey conducted by Aurora QuickCare, a Wisconsin-based member of the Convenient Care Association, patients with no health insurance and those with high deductibles were especially pleased with their care at the retail clinics.

As retail clinics become more popular with patients, they may add more preventive care and options to manage chronic conditions, such as intravenous therapy and downloading data from medical devices, Scott says. The Phoenix clinics already work with the CVS drugstores to offer different preventive health screenings each month, including blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and skin cancer analysis, Garcia says.

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The retail clinic concept has also proven popular with hospitals and large health maintenance organizations, and Scott says that more than a third of the clinic operator systems are part of hospital systems. Doctors' groups in a few states such as Tennessee and Kansas have raised questions about whether there is enough doctor supervision of these clinics, most of which are staffed by nurse practitioners.

Are retail clinics with corporate influence the best medicine?

The American Academy of Family Physicians does not endorse the clinics, saying they could interfere with a patient establishing a "medical home" with a primary care doctor. The American Medical Association has softened its stance on retail clinics, although the group recently called for a ban on the sale of tobacco or tobacco-related products in stores which house the clinics.

Not sure if a retail clinic is the right choice for you? Take a look at our list of pros and cons to find out what you could gain or lose if you decide to step inside. Adapted in part from, Retail Medical Clinics: More Health Behavior News. Find Good Health Care The quality of doctors and hospitals varies. Here is information to help you find the right care.

Clinic / Health Unit

Plus, resources for help with paying for prescriptions. Communicate With Your Doctors Advice on how to explain your symptoms, talk to doctors and ask the right questions about tests and prescriptions. Organize Your Health Care Tips for doctors' appointments, managing health records and dealing with illness and work.


  • The Hospital and Clinic Improvement Handbook!
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Make Good Treatment Decisions Treatment may involve making important decisions. Here's advice on understanding your options, including watchful waiting and getting a second opinion. Participate In Your Treatment How to manage medical treatments at home, including medications and dealing with side effects. Seek Knowledge About Your Health Advice on understanding your risk for disease s and finding online health information you can trust.

Get Preventative Health Care Advice about physical check-ups, disease screening, dental exams, vaccinations and immunizations. Promote Your Health Information on healthy lifestyles, improving health habits and help with common concerns, such as weight loss and exercise, pain and depression. Plan for Your End-of-Life Care Information on caregiving, long-term and nursing care, palliative and hospice care and advance directives.

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Supported by the Jessie Gruman Memorial Fund, cfah. For information on obtaining a commercial use license, please contact the George Washington University Office of Technology Transfer.

Clinic / Health Unit | WBDG - Whole Building Design Guide

What's on the menu Most retail clinics operate something like this: What's In Store As retail clinics become more popular with patients, they may add more preventive care and options to manage chronic conditions, such as intravenous therapy and downloading data from medical devices, Scott says.

More Communicate With Your Doctors Advice on how to explain your symptoms, talk to doctors and ask the right questions about tests and prescriptions. More Organize Your Health Care Tips for doctors' appointments, managing health records and dealing with illness and work. More Participate In Your Treatment How to manage medical treatments at home, including medications and dealing with side effects. More Seek Knowledge About Your Health Advice on understanding your risk for disease s and finding online health information you can trust.

The Hospital and Clinic Improvement Handbook is a practical guide to how operations management -- in particular Lean and the Theory of Constraints TOC -- can rapidly advance value and performance in any healthcare organization. Utilizing a systems approach that will be relevant for healthcare managers and executives, it unpacks and demystifies concepts such as performance measures, operations, quality, cost accounting, pricing, and value enhancement, all as they relate to eliminating waste and non-value-adding activities.

Enriched with dozens of examples and building on the authors' experience teaching and refining these concepts for healthcare, this text is an essential guide for executives and managers across the industry.


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The Modern Healthcare Environment 2. Principles of Management in the Dynamic Healthcare Environment 3. Constraint Management in a Bottleneck Environment 6. Constraint Management under a Market Constraint 7. Resolving Managerial Conflicts 9. The "Efficiencies Syndrome" The "Evils" of Long Response Times Reducing Response Times The Complete Kit Concept The Effects of Variability and Uncertainty The Evils of Traditional Cost-Accounting Quality Management and Process Control Creating Value for Healthcare Organizations Chan School of Public Health.

Shimeon Pass, MBA, MSc, is a management consultant whose work applies the philosophy and tools of the focused-management methodology, Lean, and TOC to the healthcare, technology, service, retail, and non-profit sectors.

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This is a solid book for several improvement topics as applied in a healthcare setting. The healthcare sector faces challenges which are constantly escalating. Populations are growing worldwide and so is the share of the elderly in society.