ACP issues policy recommendations on retail health clinics
Retail health clinics should serve as an episodic alternative to care from an established primary care practice for relatively healthy patients without complex medical histories, among other recommendations.
ACP recently released 6 policy recommendations on retail health clinics, emphasizing that they should not replace a regular relationship with a primary care physician.
The recommendations, developed by ACP's Medical Practice and Quality Committee, were based on review of available studies and reports on retail health clinics, focusing specifically on retail clinics based within pharmacies or retail stories. ACP's main recommendations are as follows:
- 1. Retail health clinics should serve as an episodic alternative to care from an established primary care practice for relatively healthy patients without complex medical histories.
- 2. Retail health clinics should have a well-defined and limited scope of clinical services that are consistent with state scope-of-practice laws and with the more limited physical space and infrastructure that such a setting permits. These well-defined and limited services should be clearly disclosed to the patient prior to or at the visit.
- 3. Retail clinics should use standardized medical protocols based on evidence-based practice guidelines.
- 4. Retail health clinics should have a structured referral system to primary care settings and encourage patients they see to establish a longitudinal relationship with a primary care physician if the patient does not have such an existing relationship. ACP believes that it is not appropriate for retail clinics to refer patients directly to subspecialists without consultation by a primary care clinician in order to ensure continuity of care.
- 5. ACP believes it is primarily the responsibility of the retail health clinic to promptly communicate information about a retail health clinic visit to a patient's primary care physician, including but not limited to the administration of any vaccination, prescriptions, tests, or postcare instructions.
- 6. ACP believes insufficient data exist concerning the provision of chronic disease management in the retail health clinic setting and recommends against chronic and complex disease management in these settings at this time. ACP recommends controlled research into the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of chronic disease management in the retail health clinic setting.
An executive summary was published by Annals of Internal Medicine on Oct. 13. The full position paper appears as an appendix.