A 2/26/10 story in the Houston Business Journal quotes RediClinic CEO Web Golinkin declaring that the pioneering retail clinic operator is prepared to open “a meaningful number” of new clinics over the next few years now that it has overhauled its clinics strategy (Fast Medicine: Designed for Convenience, Retail Clinics are Gaining Popularity Among Patients. Two pages; registration may be required)
Golinkin goes on to predict a similar measure of growth for other clinics operators.
In the same piece, National Center for Policy Analysis senior fellow Devon Herrick says clinics’ positive impact on the access they provide people to effective clinical care will ultimately lead to greater use – and presumably some measure of retail clinic success.
The endorsement of NCPA, headed by “father of the Health Savings Account” John Goodman, is politically frought. For example, prominent evidence on retail clinics’ impact on access suggests to critics that expanded access may be experienced mostly by those with greater than average means (We feel the fact that the same evidence may be referenced positively by those who support retail clinics merely makes the issue more nuanced, both in policy and clinical terms, than it might appear to be on the surface).
Nonetheless, the organization has patiently and successfully marshaled evidence of the usefulness and popularity of health care innovations that can appeal to people on the rightward end of the political spectrum as well as to those in search of effective ways to reshape health care delivery and costs generally, and communicated the character of those innovations effectively.