Kristene Diggins Discusses the Care Team Structure in Convenient Care Clinics

Convenient care clinics like MinuteClinic allow patients without regular primary care to become more informed about their health and medications, according to Kristene Diggins, FAANP, CNE, NEA‐BC, DNP, MBA, manager of professional practice at MinuteClinic.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How can convenient care clinics work with primary care providers and other healthcare providers to care for patients with chronic conditions?

Convenient care clinics are located in clinics across the country and retail pharmacies, and they are a safety net for primary care providers. So often times, the patients that come to these settings don’t have primary care providers, and this is a great opportunity to loop them in, to provide them with a primary care provider, and then also for those that do, to make sure that they’re getting the follow-up and monitoring that they need.

How does the pharmacist fit into the rest of the care team in convenient clinics?

In this setting, particularly in convenient care, there’s usually a pharmacist closely located, so it’s excellent to be able to start with the provider in the clinic and then work together with that pharmacist who’s readily accessible and can go over the medications with the patient, make sure and answer some cost questions or side effect questions. Their expertise is readily available, close to that provider in a convenient care setting.

How can healthcare professionals deliver collaborative care without stepping on one another’s toes or duplicating services?

I think definitely it’s cooperative and not competitive. There’s definitely enough work for everyone to do. I think understanding where the patients are coming from, so each population is a little bit different, and then understanding what role a collaborator has. I think ultimately, the main collaborator is the patient. The patient understanding their condition, being informed, and collaborating with different professionals, and being informed to know which professional, which organization, is going to be the best to meet their goals, because these goals are the patient goals specifically, and that’s where change will happen.