Retail Healthcare News

It was late in the afternoon, and she was flying to Canada the next day.

in Smyrna, near Laney’s home, so she drove there. “I was in and out very quickly,” said Laney, who was tested for strep throat by a nurse practitioner. “I was very impressed.” And she was on the plane the next day.

The MinuteClinic site that Laney visited is one of more than 50 such medical facilities within retail stores in the Atlanta area. The walk-in clinics — open through the early evening and on weekends, when doctors offices typically aren’t — provide care for minor illnesses and offer vaccinations, physicals and other testing.

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Publix Super Markets here opened three in-store health clinics run by The Little Clinic, Brentwood, Tenn., this month. One opened in the Tampa-area town of Palm Harbor, bringing the total of Publix clinics in the market to eight. Another opened in Apopka in the Orlando area. The Little Clinic reported that two additional Orlando area clinics are now under construction and will open later this year. The third clinic, in Miami, was the eighth Little Clinic in Publix Miami-area stores. Six additional Miami area clinics are now under construction and will open later this year.

Source: Supermarket News
Original Publication Date: May 2, 2008

The Little Clinic has opened its 50th retail health location and is averaging one new store opening per week.

The latest location for the fast-growing Brentwood-based health care company is in Lake Orion, Mich.

The Little Clinic was founded in 2003 and locations are staffed with nurse practitioners and certified physician assistants.

The clinics diagnose, treat and write prescriptions for common illnesses such as bronchitis, step throat and the flu and also treat minor injuries.

Clinics operate out of Publix, Kroger and Fry’s Food Stores in seven states.

Source: Nashville Business Journal
Original Publication Date: March 11, 2008

Convenient health care just became a little easier to access for CIGNA HealthCare members in Dallas-Fort Worth, and Little Rock, Ark. as the company adds MedBasics Family Health Centers to its network, effective March 1, 2008.

“MedBasics Family Health Centers work well for the average American, always on the go,” said Kenneth Phenow, M.D., market medical executive for CIGNA. “From the parent trying to get a child’s immunizations up to date while running between children’s many activities to the working adult trying to get a minor illness checked during a lunch hour, retail clinics offer an affordable, efficient and convenient option.”

MedBasics Family Health Centers are located in Carnival Super Markets in Dallas-Fort Worth and inside USA Drug Stores in Little Rock, Ark., and are open seven days a week, with extended evening and weekend hours. Members who visit MedBasics can receive a variety of routine, non-urgent and preventative medical services including immunizations, flu shots and treatments of common illnesses such as allergies, bladder infections, bronchitis, ear and sinus infections, fever and strep throat. Most visits are completed in an average of 15 minutes.

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The Little Clinic–based out of Brentwood, TN–which runs more than 40 retail clinics inside of Kroger and Publix supermarkets, has agreed to formally adopt proposed clinic standards established by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The standards, which the AAFP tags as “desired attributes,” include that the retail clinic should have a limited scope of clinical services, practice evidence-based medicine, have connections with local physician practices, have a referral system for care outside its scope, and use electronic medical records to gather accurate and comprehensive data for use by the primary physician.

While none of these standards are likely to change the way Little Clinics work too much, you could still call this effort an olive branch to the medical community, some of which still violently opposes the existence of such clinics. Now, one is left to ponder whether the retail chain’s peers will make similar good-will gestures toward leading physician groups. Wonder if Wal-Mart has any such plans?

Source: FierceHealthcare
Original Publication Date: February 22, 2008