[TomOfTTB]

What I'm wondering is how much these clinics use technology and how much better they could be if they used it more.

I wonder if having a small number of doctors available to these nurses could improve treatment by allowing more patients to get a doctors opinion (somewhat in the same way e-mail and IM tech support allows each technician to server more people than phone support). Could they treat even more conditions that way?

It seems a setup like this with some technology checks and balances (to make sure the right questions get asked) could make health care a lot more efficient.

[kgrin]

Generally speaking, PAs and NPs must technically be "supervised" by a physician. I think the degree of supervision varies by state, but it's typically not case-by-case supervision - rather more of a general sign-off sort of thing, with availability for the "tough cases". That sort of sounds like what you're describing, though obviously there's a wide spectrum of how involved the doctor can get.

[Radix]

Walmart has a deal with RediClinic. The Walmart RediClinics are apparently using eClinicalWorks, the rest might be Athena Health. I expect these clinics use technology as much as possible. I don't think they can lower cost much more by using more, and if they did I expect any profits would be kept with no change in price.

http://ecwblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/walmart-rediclinic-eclin...

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1501613/rediclinic_to_le...