Retail health clinics found inside pharmacies and other stores should be used as backups to people's regular doctors, says a large group of U.S. physicians. The recommendation is one of six included in a position paper from the American College of Physicians (ACP) that aims to build a framework for retail health clinics underscoring patient safety, communication and collaboration. "We know that retail clinics are a reality," said ACP President Dr. Wayne J. Riley. "We embrace them as a backup alternative to primary care." Coughs and earaches are examples of the type of conditions people can take to retail health clinics when their regular doctors are not available, said Riley, who is also a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.
