The convenient care industry is quietly beefing up benefits and looking for ways to entice clinicians into joining its ranks—potentially stealing away top talent from hospitals, health systems, and physicians practices.
If you thought retaining your nurse practitioners and physician assistants was already a challenge, hold on to your hats—it may be about to get even harder. Retail clinics are proliferating, attempting to hire from the same pool of clinicians as hospitals and healthcare systems, and offering enticing workers' benefits to boot.
From an employee's perspective, there is definite appeal to the retail clinic setting, also known as convenient care clinics. Healthcare workers have traditionally worked long hours, often under stressful conditions. A retail clinic setting might offer a way out of the pressure cooker, says Tine Hansen-Turton, Executive Director at the Convenient Care Association in Philadelphia.
Retail Clinics Solidify Their Market Niche
"This is very gratifying work. In most healthcare environments, we have a lot of disgruntled customers, but customers seem to really like convenient care clinics. When you're a provider and you have happy customers, it's a good thing."
Between 85% and 90% of clinicians employed by retail clinics are nurse practitioners, says Hansen-Turton, and the next most commonly employed clinician is a physician assistant. The clinics are usually overseen by one or two physicians.
"We're currently experiencing an increase in appetite for convenient care, and as this ramps up, will see more clinicians investigating this kind of work environment," says Bonnie Britton, Senior Vice President, Locum Tenens Division at San Diego-based staffing service AMN Healthcare who is responsible for overseeing recruitment of clinicians to be placed in retail clinics.
Clinician compensation is usually similar to what one would experience working in a hospital, says Britton. "It appears to be comparable—I don't see any wide discrepancy yet," she says, adding that, as a relatively new employment setting, compensation levels are still evolving.
Hanson-Turton agrees, stating that clinician salaries in convenient care settings are "very competitive."
Working Conditions That Work
Unlike working in an emergency department or even a physician's office, retail clinics rarely see complicated or extreme cases. Retail clinic staff usually deal with common maladies such as pinkeye, urinary tract infections, strep throat, and minor injuries. Anything more serious, whether it be a broken bone or suspected cancer, gets referred to a physician's office or nearby emergency department.
"The employee benefits packages are similar to hospitals," says Britton, "but there's more flexibility and more autonomy working in a retail clinic. It's usually pretty easy to get a day off." Unlike a hospital, a retail clinic's hours are usually 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, meaning that there is no overnight shift—which many clinicians with families find appealing. Additionally, it's often easier to negotiate the ability to work part time in a retail clinic setting, says Britton.
Many clinicians who find retail clinics appealing are young, says Hansen-Turton. "We're seeing younger graduates than we saw before." They like the ongoing education opportunities offered by retail clinics, says Hansen-Turton. "This is really a practice where you also learn a lot of business skills and how to manage a business, which is attractive to a lot of practitioners as well… it's an opportunity you don't see in other care settings."
From The Same Pool
"We are working from the same pool of candidates as an acute care facility. They have the same certifications and qualifications," says Britton. Most of the retail clinic-bound clinicians recruited through AMN are experienced healthcare workers with outpatient settings and acute care on their resumes, she added.
When asked if retail clinics are competing with hospitals for qualified employees, Britton responded, "I would agree. There is a shortage of physicians and clinicians in this country, and we're all competing for those very valuable resources and talents."
However, Hansen-Turton suggests that the new trend toward partnerships between retail clinics and healthcare systems will make it easy for clinicians to transition from retail clinic roles to hospital roles and back again.
"As many retail clinics now have partnerships with hospitals, some employees may work for both," she suggests, saying that some clinicians divide their time between the hospital and retail clinic setting. "[This arrangement is] very attractive to nurse practitioners," she says, and the relationships formed through these partnerships gives clinicians a foothold back in the hospital setting.
The key for retention is to stay competitive with other potential employers and keep the options interesting. "If you make the choices exciting for the clinicians, they will come," says Britton.
Lena J. Weiner is an associate editor at HealthLeaders Media.