Abstract
PURPOSE Retail clinics are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, offering cheaper and convenient alternatives to physician offices for minor illness and wellness care. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of cost of care and appointment wait time on care-seeking decisions at retail clinics or physician offices.
METHODS As part of a statewide random-digit-dial survey of households, adult residents of Georgia were interviewed to conduct a discrete choice experiment with 2 levels each of 4 attributes: price ($59; $75), appointment wait time (same day; 1 day or longer), care setting–clinician combination (nurse practitioner in retail clinic; physician in private office), and acute illness (urinary tract infection [UTI]; influenza). The respondents indicated whether they would seek care under each of the 16 resulting choice scenarios. A cooperation rate of 33.1% yielded 493 completed telephone interviews.
RESULTS The respondents preferred to seek care for both conditions; were less likely to seek care for UTI (β =−0.149; P = .008); preferred to seek care from a physician (β =1.067; P <.001) and receive same day care (β =−2.789; P<.001). All else equal, cost savings of $31.42 would be required for them to seek care at a retail clinic and $82.12 to wait 1 day or more.
CONCLUSIONS Time and cost savings offered by retail clinics are attractive to patients, and they are likely to seek care there given sufficient cost savings. Appointment wait time is the most important factor in care-seeking decisions and should be considered carefully in setting appointment policies in primary care practices.
- Patient satisfaction
- physician office
- retail clinic
- cost of care
- appointments and schedules
- patient acceptance of health care
Footnotes
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Conflicts of interest: none reported
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Disclaimer: The data and tabulation utilized in this document were made available in part by the Survey Research Center of the University of Georgia. Neither the Survey Research Center nor the University of Georgia bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretation presented here.
Preliminary findings of this study were presented as a poster at the Society for Medical Decision Making 30th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 2008.
- Received for publication December 8, 2008.
- Revision received June 2, 2009.
- Accepted for publication July 27, 2009.
- © 2010 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.