Over the past several years, a new entity known as the retail clinic has appeared on the health care landscape. These clinics provide simple primary care health services on a walk-in basis within large retail settings. Some are stand-alone entities, while others are part of larger, comprehensive health care delivery systems.

In November 2007, the California HealthCare Foundation partnered with the journal Health Affairs to sponsor a roundtable discussion regarding the nature and future of the retail clinic and its impact on primary care and on the wider health care system. The roundtable brought together 23 stakeholders from a wide spectrum of the health care field, including primary care physicians, health policy academics, health insurance administrators, and representatives of the retail clinic industry.

The roundtable participants examined the nature of retail clinics and their effect on the health care system — and on traditional primary care, in particular — under the rubric of "disruptive innovation." That is, participants considered not only whether retail clinics could be considered a significant innovation in health care delivery but also the extent to which the innovation was disruptive — positively or negatively — of primary care and the wider health care delivery system.

Participants also considered the future of retail clinics: whether they should expand their services and in what directions; their relationship to health care insurance; and the viability of stand-alone versus system-based clinics.

This report summarizes the day's proceedings and is available under Document Downloads.