Dear Editor of the Memphis Medical News,

The Page One article in the February issue (“Partners in Retail Clinics Tout Early Success”) appears to be an endorsement for this model of medicine. As a general pediatrician in the Memphis area, former President of the Memphis and Mid South Pediatric Society and former Chairman of the Pediatric Department at Baptist Women’s Hospital, I have many concerns with these retail clinics. 

This article seems to define success by total number of visits, but not the quality of the decisions made during these visits. I am unaware of any physician not affiliated with these clinics who actually believes this is an acceptable venue for healthcare.

The title of the article states, “Partners in Retail Clinics Tout Early Success.” Never in my career before, during or after medical school and training, did I imagine that primary care medicine would be described as a “Retail” industry. Medicine is not a retail industry and calling it this is a disservice to our patients and our profession. 

As a physician I do not have clients, customers or revenue units in my office – I simply have patients and families who I have the privilege of serving.  At the core of this service is a relationship with patients and their families. It is within this environment that the medical home should be managed. Licensed providers who are more interested in patient care should be managing this care rather than bureaucrats managing the bottom line. 

Patients are best served when getting a pre-participation sports physical or camp participation physical with their primary care physician. Heart anomalies and screenings for other medical issues should be performed in a setting where more experienced healthcare providers are and not simply where expedience is advertised. 

The pediatric cancers that I have detected in my patients have usually not been associated with the chief concern of the visit. Only after a thorough history and physical exam was a pediatric cancer detected. 

Retail clinics that not only advertise, but call themselves the “minute clinic” are a setup for less thorough exams and potential malpractice. The convenience that retail clinics advertise should not be replaced by the quality that more likely comes with a primary care physician. 

The enclosed picture highlights a great concern with some of these clinics. Marketing a preventive health and wellness clinic over the cigarette and cigar display is unacceptable. Some of these clinics are profiting from the very items I am educating people not to use. Imagine if I sold soft drinks, junk food, beer, wine and tobacco products in my waiting room – would the media endorse this revenue stream as a success for my practice? Imagine counseling a teenage girl on self-esteem issues, healthy eating, nutrition and on her walk out of the clinic was a magazine rack featuring publications with photo-shopped models on the covers. As absurd as this sounds, this is exactly what is happening at these retail clinics.

Most unfortunate is that the featured retail clinic in your article has aligned with a major hospital system in Memphis.  This relationship lends credibility to a substandard level of care. While our current medical environment needs to address access to medicine, hospital-endorsed retail clinics are not the answer. Let’s hope that creative scheduling, extended office hours and increased access to primary care doctors may decrease the need for the public to resort to these retail clinics and preserve the dignity of our profession.

Thanks,

Keith B. Owen, Sr., MD