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Sick Flocking to In-Store Clinics

Jen Krasco, nurse practitioner at a CVS MinuteClinic in Medford, posted a sign about flu shot availability. (Globe Staff Photo / Mark Wilson)

In a state renowned for its elite teaching hospitals and high- technology medicine, the McDonald’s of medicine is thriving.

Six months after the first CVS MinuteClinics opened in the state, thousands of Massachusetts residents have visited the in-store clinics for treatment of sore throats, bronchitis, and the flu.

With MinuteClinics opening at a rate of more than two a month in the state, company executives said they have taken off here faster than in the 24 other states where the company owns clinics. Nurse practitioners at the 16 Massachusetts clinics open so far have treated more than 10,000 patients with acute problems and given about 10,000 flu shots, the executives said.

The patients are drawn by the clinics’ walk-in policy and convenient night and weekend hours at a time when many primary care physicians are turning away new patients. And customers are not deterred by the absence of physicians or the Spartan surroundings, tucked among aisles of cold remedies and snack food.

“Massachusetts does have some serious access problems in terms of physician availability,” said retail medicine consultant and analyst Tom Charland, head of Minnesota-based Merchant Medicine LLC, “so it doesn’t surprise me people are using these clinics. They may go to their Harvard-educated doctor for something serious. But if you have a bladder infection on a Friday, you’re not going to suffer until Monday if you have a nurse practitioner who will see you down the street in a CVS store.”

Another major factor in the clinics’ success, he said, is that the state’s three largest insurers cover the visits without a physician’s referral.

Doctors, who generally opposed the state’s decision to allow retail clinics to open in Massachusetts, said they have mixed opinions of how MinuteClinics are treating their patients so far – some have complained of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions – but they have not seen serious problems with the care or a significant impact on their practices. The state Department of Public Health, which regulates the clinics, said it has received one complaint about a MinuteClinic, from a hospital, but can’t release details during the investigation.

Nationally, visits to MinuteClinics more than doubled last year, the company’s best year ever, a surge partly due to new clinics. “Massachusetts certainly contributed” to the growth, said Chip Phillips, MinuteClinic president.

The company recently closed 90 clinics in several other states for the non-winter months, when business slows. But CVS continues to open year-round clinics in Massachusetts and plans to have a total of 28 by the end of this year. Company executives would not release detailed visit numbers by clinic or by state.