Retail-based mostly clinics (RBC) such as CVS Corp.'s MinuteClinic and Walgreen's Health Corner Clinic are turning into a fast-growing business trend. However are they sensible for you? When you would like convenient and cheap access to basic healthcare services, visiting an RBC might be your best choice.
RBCs have been in operation for over seven years, however they have been expanding phenomenally during the last 3 years. There are over two hundred RBCs nationwide and an estimated 700 a lot of are expected to open in 2007. These clinics are run by independent businesses that lease space from drug retailers and provide foot traffic in the pharmacy also as the front end. This growth is driven by demand for simply accessible, readily obtainable, reasonable basic medical care, and drug store chains are leading the charge to fill this demand.
In December, Walgreens opened sixteen Health Corner Clinics in Atlanta and a pair of in Las Vegas, bringing their RBC count to over 45 with concerning thirty additional scheduled to open this quarter. CVS is the biggest operator with over one hundred ten clinics; the company purchased MinuteClinic last year. Two MinuteClinic RBCs still operate in Target Stores. Ceremony-Aid has eleven clinics in California. Jody Cook Rite-Aid spokesperson said, "We have a tendency to just like the concept and are looking for the proper opportunities to expand nationwide."
RBCs are operated by healthcare companies like MinuteClinic (the biggest operator), RediClinic, that has teamed up with Wal-Mart, and Take Care Health System that has partnered with Walgreens. Take Care operates over 36 in-store clinics and plans to open tons more across the country. The corporate completed a $77 million spherical of equity financing last year, one amongst the largest thus far within the sector.
The RBC sector bears watching as drug stores work to fulfill client demand for an alternative to the slow, inconvenient and high-priced service offered by ancient physicians' practices, emergency facilities and HMOs. Several primary care physicians supply short hours, "bankers' hours" and some do not even provide the weekend hours that some banks currently provide, making it troublesome for the high share of working mothers, who are usually the fogeys with children needing service.
Moreover, hospital emergency rooms are for serious emergencies, not where the average client ought to select to travel for basic healthcare service. Uninsured customers who were concerning 16 percent within the U.S. in 2004 and therefore the insured with high deductibles can continue to fuel the growth of the RBC sector.
Doctors and their trade associations see these clinics as "encroaching on the economics of their business", which is, in fact, the case. Although critics of the clinics concede that the clinics are capitalizing on client frustration with traditional health care delivery systems, the ancient medical establishment has begun to fight back by generating negative publicity. The Yank Medical Association complained that the clinics "are spreading too far, too fast." The criticism implies that the AMA should decide how far and how fast their competition ought to increase, a really bizarre idea in an exceedingly free market economy. Moreover, the American Academy of Family Physicians noted that "RBCs are here to remain and traditional medicine would have to adapt to survive."
But, the number of RBCs continues to extend, which might lead to an escalation of resistance from the medical establishment. Adverse publicity concerning these clinics might discourage customers from using them to their own detriment furthermore that of the clinics and the drug stores that house them.
Author Resource:
Jeff Patterson has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Healthcare Systems, you can also check out his latest website about
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