And these clinics are convenient. Most such clinics see a high percentage of their patients on a walk-in basis, with no appointment needed. Having such a clinic open up in a neighborhood can set new local standards for access and convenience, since many are open 12 or more hours per day, 6 or 7 days per week. While hospital emergency departments have longer hours, their cost of care is generally much higher.

The trade association representing such clinics calls itself the “Convenient Care Association,” presumably to contrast itself with other, more inconvenient forms of care. One driving force behind the establishment of such clinics, which are typically housed in stores that already have pharmacies, is the billions of dollars in direct revenue they can generate. In addition, they generate substantial indirect revenues through other in-store purchases and filling the prescriptions prescribed by their own practitioners.

The downsides of retail clinics are less obvious than the visible cheap prices and clear convenience. One is the fact that they tend to siphon away many of the simpler, quick-to-treat conditions from physicians’ offices and hospitals—these common problems help keep costs down and keep hospitals in business. If retail clinics handle a growing percentage of the relatively straightforward cases, doctor’s offices and other facilities that offer more complex care will find their average patient becoming more complex, driving up their costs even further.

Another issue is the expertise of those providing care. It is natural for a patient with a common complaint such as a cough, sore throat, or fever to seek the quickest and most convenient treatment option. But common complaints can be signs of less common and more serious medical conditions. And the problem that leads patients to seek care is not always the most serious problem they have.

A recent patient of one of my students illustrates this. A woman with a sore throat went to a retail clinic and received a prescription for antibiotics. After a few days, she hadn’t gotten better, so she went to her family physician. The physician determined that the sore throat was probably due to a viral infection. He also, however, talked to her about her overall health and life. This conversation led to a previously unsuspected diagnosis of clinical depression. The patient is now in treatment and doing much better.

A case like this illuminates three important differences between the retail clinic and the physician’s office. First, the retail clinic prescribed an antibiotic, but in the physician’s judgment the infection was not bacterial. Overusing antibiotics can promote the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Second, the minute clinic focused exclusively on the sore throat. And third, the physician’s more comprehensive evaluation led to a diagnosis with important implications for the patient’s overall, long-term health.