Physician office vs retail clinic: patient preferences in care seeking for minor illnesses.
OBJECTIVE
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 (beta = -0.149; P = .008); preferred to seek care from a physician (beta = 1.067; P < .001) and receive same day care (beta = -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.
Ahmed
Arif
A
Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, USA. ahmedar@umkc.edu
Fincham
Jack E
JE
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003132:Commerce; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data