Health care at the store? Retail clinics jump sharply

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) – If you've tried to get basic health care where you also buy your groceries and other staples in the past few years, you're in good company.

It turns out that visits to retail clinics, which offer vaccinations and treatments for common, minor health problems beyond the traditional weekday hours kept by most doctors' offices, increased 10-fold from 2007 to 2009. That's according to a new study from the Rand Corp., a nonprofit research group based in Santa Monica, Calif.

"The convenience of the retail clinic is basically drawing people in," said Scott Ashwood, lead author of the report and a Pittsburgh-Pa.-based Rand Corp. analyst. "There's very little wait time, if any. You get a good sense of exactly what you're going to be getting from a retail clinic."

Read the whole story from MarketWatch.