Service Expansion in Retail Health
Service expansion in retail health has created great concern for some members of the medical community. New service rollouts in retail health are not synonymous with new skill acquisition for nurse practitioners. Retail clinicians are highly trained nationally certified family nurse practitioners whose commendable evidence-based practice has been well established in the literature.
The convenient care model of health care delivery is primarily consumer driven which speaks volumes for the high quality and affordable services provided by retail health clinicians. Let's take a glance at the proposed new services ... infusion therapy for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis is currently being piloted in some retail health clinics. These medications are safe efficacious treatments that are proven to improve patient outcomes and are commonly administered by nurses in various outpatient settings.
Common office dermatological procedures such as wart and skin tag removal using approved portable cryosurgical techniques are also proposed new service soon to be rolled out in the retail health setting. These simple low risk procedures are approved for administration by any licensed healthcare professional in outpatient settings.
Skin closure with topical skin adhesives is another common outpatient procedure performed by healthcare professional including nurse practitioners. This method of skin closure is comparable to suturing and is best suitable for small superficial lacerations. Again, the procedure is of low complexity, commonly used by many licensed healthcare professional and is preferred over suturing by patients especially children.
Now, let's take a closer look at the proposed new service roll outs for retail health. They have all been approved by the FDA as safe highly effective alternative methods of treatment in outpatient settings, they are preferred over traditional methods by most patients which means that there is a high demand for the service. Why not give patients what they want in a convenient affordable setting? Coincidently, they are all "procedures" that are reimbursed by most commercial insurers ... could this be the real basis of concern? Surely not ... so I'll dismiss that thought...