The American Medical Association (AMA) has passed a resolution asking federal and state agencies to investigate whether walk-in health clinics at retail stores are operating with a conflict of interest that may put patients at risk.
Retail, or store-based, clinics are walk-in offices inside large retail outlets, including pharmacies, supermarkets and mega-stores such as Wal-Mart. Customers can see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant without an appointment, and pay a relatively low price for basic medical procedures such as injections. A full physician must supervise the clinic, but is not required to be on site.
But medical professionals at these clinics are also authorized to write prescriptions, which is where the alleged conflict of interest comes into play. Because the clinics are not totally independent of the pharmacies that house them, the AMA detects a conflict-of-interest in the writing of prescriptions.
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Walk-in health clinics at pharmacy retailers operate with conflict of interest, charges AMA http://www.newstarget.com/022469.html
