Check Up Before You Check Out: Retail Clinics and Emergency Room Use

Alexander, Diane; Currie, Janet; Schnell, Molly

Working Paper

Check Up Before You Check Out: Retail Clinics and Emergency Room Use

Abstract: Retail clinics are an innovation that has the potential to improve competition in health care markets. We use the universe of emergency room (ER) visits in New Jersey from 2006-2014 to examine the impact of retail clinics on ER usage. We find significant effects of retail clinics on ER visits for both minor and preventable conditions; Residents residing close to an open clinic are 4.1-12.3 percent less likely to use an ER for these conditions. Our estimates suggest annual cost savings from reduced ER usage of over $70 million if retail clinics were made readily available across New Jersey.

Keywords: Clinics; hospital emergency services; health;

JEL Classification: I11;