A clinic is a healthcare facility that’s primarily focused on outpatient care, unlike hospitals that provide more specialized treatments and admit patients for overnight stays. A clinic can be a physician group or an individual doctor’s private solo practice. Traditionally, a clinic has multiple physicians and providers working together, with specific ratios of MDs to midlevels in place.
Some large outpatient clinics house specialists in medical fields such as gynecology or dermatology. These clinics may also serve as referral centers for local residents. These clinics are called polyclinics and can be found in some larger cities.
In many countries, a hospital clinic provides free or low-cost health services for those who are medically indigent. These facilities are sometimes known as pay clinics. Most clinics of this type operate on a volunteer basis and are supported by a combination of donations and government programs, such as Medicaid, that assists people with limited incomes cover their health needs.
Some healthcare clinics are located in retail locations, such as supermarkets or department stores, and provide walk-in health services for the general public. These clinics are often staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants certified in treating common illnesses and injuries that don’t require the level of care provided at emergency rooms or urgent care clinics.
Another type of clinic is a specialized clinic that offers advanced diagnostic or treatment services for specific diseases or areas of the body, such as a breast cancer clinic, AIDS clinic, or fertility clinic. A urology clinic is a type of specialized clinic that deals with the study and diagnosis of diseases and injuries involving the urinary tract.
Employers often sponsor on-site medical clinics for their employees, which are located on a work site to offer immediate access to care. These clinics are designed to reduce employee absenteeism and lost productivity due to non-work related illnesses or injuries, as well as to cut employer medical costs.
Having an on-site clinic is a great benefit for workers who don’t have primary care doctors, or whose current doctor cannot accommodate same day/next day appointments. Clinics can also help employers recruit and retain employees, since having a convenient health care option on-site can be a significant selling point for job seekers.
Introducing an on-site clinic to employees can be a difficult process, but it is usually successful when the benefits of the program are clearly communicated and well understood. To avoid a resistance to the new service, a company should allow employees to visit the clinic and experience the setting and the provider team firsthand. This can also help alleviate fears that personal medical information will be shared with supervisors or other staff members outside the clinic environment. This can be addressed by reassuring employees that the clinic adheres to strict HIPAA privacy standards and will not share any health records with anyone outside of the healthcare team. With proper communication, and a welcoming atmosphere in the clinic, an on-site health center can become a popular employee benefit.