Retail clinics: convenient and high quality?

From the Wall Street Journal:

Most Americans who have used retail-based health-care clinics say they are satisfied with the care they received, a new Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive health-care poll finds, but concerns about quality remain among the general public.

It's interesting that the Journal chose to spin the story this way, i.e., clinics convenient but quality is questionable. The "quality concerns" reflect the fact that 64% of respondents agreed --26% "strongly" and 37% "somewhat"-- that "I would be worried about the qualifications of the staff that provides care in a health clinic not run by medical doctors."But the  story could just have easily been spun another way:

More than 8 out of 10 Americans who've used retail clinics are satisfied with the convenience, and 9 out of 10 are satisfied with the quality of care.

Of course there will be concerns about quality --and those concerns are legit-- but the more intriguing message is that users are even more satisfied with the quality of care than they are with its convenience. That's something for physician practices to watch out for.