Walk-in clinics are medical facilities located within pharmacies, grocery stores and retailers. They offer primary care services at an affordable cost with very minimal wait time. They differ from urgent clinics in the sense that they offer treatment for only non life thretening and every day primary care services and they are often managed by nurse practitioners rather than primary care doctors.
So why walk-in clinics? You don’t need an appointment to walk into these clinics where as getting an appointment with primary care physician may take days. What more, these clinics may operate in weekends as well taking some pressure of your emergency care needs. The costs are not just affordable they are most often covered by your health insurance plan. Most of the time they have published costs for the services that they offer leaving little room for any surprises.
Another reason for surge in popularity of the walk-in clinics is the way insurance industry is evolving. The proliferation of high deductible health plans which require patients to often pay thousands of dollars out of pocket before insurance kicks in, can make even a routine doctor’s visit cost prohibitive.
The most common services offered by the Walk-in clinics include assisting with minor injuries and illnesses like treating for flu and cold symptoms, strep throat, travel checkups and minor cuts and skin conditions. They also offer other primary care services like immunizations, annual physicals and health screenings.
One common criticism of Walk-in clinics is lack of continuous relation between the patient and the care provider which is typically the case with Primary care physicians who maintain patient’s health records which play important role in proper diagnosis of patient health conditions. Also, walk-in clinks have no obligation to transfer medical records to physicians which may cause break in communication. It is recommended for patients to be proactive in gathering all details of the visit which will help in such scenarios.
“Primary Care” iOS and Android app offered by Cluvd provides the details of nearby walk-in clinics in retailer stores also known as “retail clinics”. The details include services offered along with listed prices for these services. The app covers the clinics in retail stores such as Walgreens, CVS, WalMart, Target, Kroger, H.E.B and Rite Aid.