AAFP President Discusses Retail Health on CBS Early Show

The Academy's focus on patient safety and continuity of care issues in retail health centers got a national stage May 30 when AAFP President Larry Fields, M.D., of Ashland, Ky., appeared on the CBS Early Show with "HealthWatch" host Emily Senay, M.D.

The feature discussed retail health clinics' services and their place in the health care system. Asked whether the Academy supported retail health clinics, Fields said that family medicine had not passed judgment because the concept was still new. In the meantime, however, "we're working with (retail clinics) to see that patient safety and continuity of care are maintained," he said. "We're helping them where they want our help because we believe in the team approach."

Still, the physician community has concern that a nurse practitioner or physician assistant in a retail clinic could miss a diagnosis, inaccurately diagnose a condition or fail to communicate information about the retail clinic visit to the patient's medical home, said Fields.

At MinuteClinic, which operates 82 retail health clinics in 10 states, those concerns are addressed by protocols that call on nurse practitioners and physician assistants to refer patients to physicians for conditions that exceed their scope of services, James Woodburn, M.D., chief medical officer of MinuteClinic, said during the broadcast.

The CBS Early Show story discussed the open schedule, cost and limited scope of services offered by the clinics, adding the clinics "are not trying to replace doctors."

The AAFP has tracked retail health clinics for more than a year. In December, the Academy distributed a list of desired attributes for retail health clinics. In May, MinuteClinic appointed FP Andrew Eisenberg, M.D., of Sarasota Fla., a member of the AAFP Commission on Practice Enhancement, to its National Clinical Quality Advisory Council.