Next time you are heading to the grocery store, remember to add “healthcare” to your shopping list! Yes, healthcare services are now being offered at local grocery stores, drug stores and general merchandise retailers, such as Shopko, Carnival, Cubfoods, Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, and Walgreens to name a few.

These retail clinics treat common medical conditions, such as colds, sinus infections, earaches, rashes, diarrhea, urinary tract infections, etc… and provide some preventative and wellness services such as flu shots and other immunizations. Care is usually delivered by a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, and many clinics have an up-front menu-style pricing and accept common health insurance plans. The first clinic opened at a Target store in Minneapolis in 2000, and the number of retail clinics has grown exponentially over the last eight years to include approximately one thousand clinics nationwide.

If you are frustrated from having to wait three weeks to get to see your family doctor and irritated from having to wait a couple of hours once you get there, you might want to give retail clinics a try. No appointments are needed, evening and weekend operating hours are provided and wait times are 15 minutes or less. And in case they can’t see you right away, they give you a restaurant-style pager so you can walk around the store while you wait.

A typical visit costs around $60-$70 if you don’t have health insurance. If you do, then you just show your card and you will be charged your regular co-pay. A poll of customers who have used retail clinics showed high overall satisfaction with cost (86% satisfaction), convenience (93%), having qualified staff to provide care (88%) and quality of care (90%).

However, for most people, the idea of receiving healthcare services at their local grocery or drug store is still a foreign one. That is why only 2.3% of American families had used retail clinics as of 2007. The main issue is one of trust: do you trust that you are going to receive high quality care in this kind of setting? And are you fine seeing a nurse practitioner or physician assistant instead of seeing your regular doctor, even for a minor health condition?

Some doctors have raised these concerns, and suggested that retail clinics might lead to fragmentation of care, especially for patients with special healthcare needs and chronic conditions. They also warned against the possibility of compromised quality and patient safety, especially when patients present with serious conditions that are beyond the scope of practice of nurse practitioners and physician assistants. However, these criticisms have not been supported by empirical evidence. And the truth is, some doctors fear the competition posed by retail clinics more than anything else.

Only time will tell whether more people will start using retail clinics. But the next I have an earache at 8:00 pm, I know exactly where I am going!