Healthcare Institutions Are Seeking New

Healthcare institutions are seeking new channels of distribution in order to reach out to consumers. Considering these possible new channels of distribution, respond to the following discussion questions.

How would you evaluate the impact of these alternative means of reaching out to patients on healthcare cost and quality of service?

One alternative channel of distribution for healthcare is using RNs instead of physicians for routine healthcare operations: "Evidence over the past decade shows that nurses have delivered care that can be substituted for physicians' services in many situations. They can perform physical examinations and health screenings more cost effectively than physicians" (Kantor 1991:1). For many services, nurses may provide comparable care and even superior service to patients, because they may have more knowledge about certain specialty areas of concern to the patient, such as nutritional or gynecological issues. However, if the patient is discovered to have a more serious condition and requires referral to a physician, the physician may not know the patient as well as if the patient had frequently seen the physician for more routine procedures. However, this is a problem with any referral to a specialist from a general practitioner, not just from nurses to physicians.

Perhaps of more concern is the use of walk-in clinics for patients seeking treatment, often located in strip malls or discount department stores like Wal-Mart, which provide a limited amount of services for patients who often do not have appointments or insurance ("Wal-Mart to expand walk-in clinics in stores," 2007, AP Wire). Patients who rely upon such clinics, although these clinics may ease the strain put upon the health-care system by patients who use the ER as their primary care facility, consumers who use these channels also do not develop a rapport with a regular health care provider and, more over, the clinic's rapid turnover of patients may mean that doctors do not spot more serious conditions that develop slowly over time until it is too late. One final venue is the Internet, where patients may buy prescription drugs if they feel they cannot wait for a physician, although these drugs may be of dubious quality as is the online 'consult' for medication. The Internet can provide a great deal of positive information about billing, insurance coverage, and other issues to consumers, but it can also be misused, misread, and simply feel impersonal.

How and why have these new channels of healthcare distribution arisen? What problem(s) do these new channels solve or attempt to solve? Explain, using at least three examples.

Cost is one of the primary issues -- it is cheaper to go to an RN than a doctor, and walk-in clinics have lower overhead costs than physician's offices, which is of great concern to uninsured or minimally insured patients. Wait time is another concern -- clinics provide immediate treatment, patients do not have to wait for appointments for a brief, routine procedure, which insured patients may balk at if they merely wish to get a routine culture for strep throat. Using the Internet to access information about insurance and care results in lowered administrative costs for providers, less need for phone operators to provide advice, and results in additional speed for the consumer, in accessing records.

For a patient without insurance, ordering drugs online and not having to pay for a 'live' consult may be more cost-efficient, despite the higher costs of the drugs. Healthcare companies' desire to make a profit may also be 'solved' by diverting some patients to RNs, and refusing to cover routine procedures unless they are deemed absolutely urgent, causing patients to turn to less expensive venues, and by using the Internet as a way to notify parents and to keep patient records -- ideally, these reduced costs should be passed on to the consumer, although this is not necessarily the case.