Typically staffed with nurse practitioners who provide diagnoses and prescriptions for a limited menu of medical services on a walk-in basis, retail-based health clinics have grown rapidly, expanding from 62 at the beginning of 2006 to approximately 1,000 in 2008.

Retail clinics report high levels of customer satisfaction and are drawing patients from all socioeconomic groups. Recent data indicate they are able to provide care for this limited menu of services at 32% to 47% of the cost of a primary care office. As they become a more common and permanent feature of the health care landscape, community health centers need to familiarize themselves with the retail clinic model.

Written by retail business consultant Mary Kate Scott, author of two previous foundation retail clinic reports, this guide and toolkit is specifically designed for community health centers. It leads users along a well-structured chronological path, including understanding the retail clinic model, explaining retail clinics to a community health center board of directors, calculating the economics of creating and operating a retail clinic, forecasting demand, creating a communications plan and outreach tools, and much more.

Even for those organizations that do not plan to implement the retail clinic model, there are likely to be valuable takeaways from these materials regarding operational efficiencies.

CHCF is making the guide and toolkit available to approved community health center applicants in California only. To gain access, submit your information below. Your identity and the FQHC status of your clinic will be confirmed by our staff before you are given further instructions. Required fields are indicated in boldface type.

If you have any questions, please contact rctoolkit@chcf.org. Thank you.