Time Preference

In 2015, Merchant Medicine (Shoreview, Minnesota) released data from a detailed national study conducted in 2014 of U.S. patients’ preferences regarding retail clinics versus urgent care clinics versus primary-care physicians’ offices. The survey involved more than 2,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 54 years and was conducted by Sparks Research and Merchant Medicine on behalf of DXM Marketing Group. Urgent care is still sometimes viewed as being only for nights and weekends, but …

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The Emergence of Retail Clinics

Urgent message: Retail-based healthcare clinics are a growing phenomenon. A report from the California HealthCare Foundation, excerpted here, says public perception is split, and their economic viability remains to be seen. How do their services stack up against those offered by urgent care? The first in-store clinics appeared in 2000 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN) metropolitan area and were operated by QuickMedx, which later became Minute- Clinic. The company’s founder, Rick Krieger, says the business …

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