Admin_Adham
The average wait time to see a healthcare provider (HCP) in a medical clinic is 38 days. In contrast, patients with strep throat, urinary tract infections, pink eye, or other minor illnesses and injuries can access care in clinics tucked into their favorite big box stores or retail pharmacies in less than 20 minutes.
There are an estimated 1800 retail health clinics in 44 states that provide basic services on a walk-in or limited appointment basis. Data show that 25% of children and almost 30% of adults received care through outlets in stores like CVS, Walgreens, and Target where shorter wait times, convenient hours, and lower out-of-pocket costs are driving demand.
“Many of the patients we see at MinuteClinic either don’t have a primary care provider or have not seen one in years,” said Angela Patterson, DNP, FNP-BC, NEA-BC, FAANP, enterprise chief nurse officer, vice president, and chief nurse practitioner (NP) officer, Retail Health for CVS Health. “We’ve been able to remove so many of the traditional barriers to care.”
About Medscape Data
Medscape continually surveys physicians and other medical professionals about key practice challenges and current issues, creating high-impact analyses. For example, the Medscape RN/LPN Job Market Report 2025 found that
- More than 6 in 10 nurses surveyed said that they investigated a new nursing job within the past 3 years.
- The majority of nurses surveyed said they had been contacted by a recruiter within the past year.
- About 1 in 7 nurses surveyed felt that their employer would give them a counteroffer if they were offered a new job.
Convenience Care Revolution
Offering convenient, more affordable access to care in underserved areas is among the reasons that visits to retail clinics increased 200% in a 5-year period, outpacing the use of urgent care clinics and emergency departments. Ateev Mehrotra MD, MPH, professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, attributes the spike to the “convenience revolution.”
“It reflects a change and shift in our society,” Mehrotra told Medscape Medical News. “Where you can get groceries 24/7 [and] banking 24/7…people are expecting the ability to get care at any time and outside an emergency department.”
NPs and physician assistants (PAs) are often the ones providing care in retail clinics. Their popularity is among the reasons that the American Association of Nurse Practitioners anticipates a 46% increase in job opportunities between 2023 and 2033.
“With physician shortages and provider burnout, NPs and PAs are playing a greater role in healthcare,” Patterson said.
Nationwide, NPs make up 20% of the primary care workforce and provide care that matches or exceeds their physician colleagues. Retail clinics have expanded the number of career opportunities for NPs and can have a positive impact in developing NP careers, according to the American Nurses Association.
Treating patients in retail clinics offers a predictable schedule free of overnight shifts, better work-life balance, and greater autonomy.
“Over the last 25-30 years, we’ve seen a slow but steady increase in the practice autonomy of nurse practitioners,” Mehrotra said. “In a primary care practice, the NP works under the physician…it could be a very hierarchical arrangement…so there’s an autonomy component to [working in a retail clinic].”
Charting the Challenges
While NPs might appreciate predictable schedules, working autonomously to treat minor illnesses and injuries, and providing care in a retail clinic, the model is not without its downsides.
Retail health clinics are struggling with staffing shortages, rising business costs, administrative burdens, and reimbursement challenges. In 2023, Walgreens closed 60 of its retail clinics and Walmart followed suit, closing all 51 Walmart Health centers across five states in 2024, leading to nurses’ job losses. CVS Health also announced plans to lay off 2900 employees in 2024.
“There was a real crash in the field where the vast majority of retailers pulled out of the market,” Mehrotra said. “Now we’re in this weird space where it’s pretty much just one retailer…and almost all retail clinics are CVS MinuteClinic.”
MinuteClinic expanded its services to include a primary care model for adults in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Patterson says the model is seeing strong primary care patient enrollment as a result of same day access, extended evening and weekend hours, and virtual care options that are often absent from traditional primary care practices.
But there are concerns that using retail clinics as their main form of healthcare could result in a lack of proper preventive care; the absence of long-term patient-provider relationships could also impact outcomes. The American Medical Association expressed concerns that retail clinics resulted in lost opportunities for preventive care.
The same autonomy that attracts NPs to retail clinics can also be a drawback. There isn’t another provider to consult, and seeing up to 30 patients per day could lead to burnout.
Patterson notes that MinuteClinic provides technology and resources, clinical decision-making tools, and mentorship to allow NPs to deliver evidence-based care. NPs also benefit from collaborating with care teams that include a population health coordinator who manages care between appointments and manages referrals and collaborating physicians who provide oversight of in-clinic teams, she added.
“Patients get both the intimacy of a one-on-one encounter and the safety net of a connected healthcare ecosystem,” Patterson explained.
Looking to the Future
Retail health clinics promised to provide convenient, more affordable options to treat minor illnesses and injuries, but the model has struggled to gain widespread traction. High cost and low insurance reimbursements are oft-cited reasons that Walmart Health and Walgreens have closed their retail health clinics.
Mehrotra believes that the explosion of telehealth options could also be to blame. One survey found that retail clinic utilization decreased 12% while telehealth visits increased 3% nationwide but more than three quarters of NPs still believe that retail health clinics are an important part of the health system.
“We’re in a situation where there’s been a lot more competition for the retail clinics,” he said. “The question that comes up in that context is whether there’s an even more convenient option for patients and whether retail clinics really have long-term legs.”
Jodi Helmer is a freelance journalist who writes about health and wellness for Fortune, AARP, WebMD, Fitbit, and GE HealthCare.
