California doctor behind latest store-based clinics

WellnessExpress enters the growing field of health care companies setting up checkup centers by checkout lines.

By Bob Kazel, AMNews staff. May 9, 2005.

A Walnut Creek, Calif., occupational medicine physician is leading an effort to bring compact, no-appointments-necessary medical clinics to retail outlets on the West Coast.

Wesley P. Chan, MD, MPH, the president of WellnessExpress Clinic, said the opening in April of the new company's first clinic inside a Longs Drug Store in Davis, Calif., is a prelude to expansion throughout the West: sites that offer quick, inexpensive medical treatment supplied by nurse practitioners and physician assistants who can handle a variety of basic problems, from eye and ear infections to superficial wounds. WellnessExpress is following the lead of MinuteClinic, a chain of similar medical offices in the Minneapolis and Baltimore areas, which was founded in 2000.

Here are excerpts from an AMNews conversation with Dr. Chan:

Question: What led you to form WellnessExpress?

Answer: We were aware of the concept because of what MinuteClinic was doing back East. [We knew about] the access-to-care problems and long wait times in emergency rooms and problems getting in to see primary care physicians. There is a large uninsured population in California, and I think this service would serve that patient population very well because of its affordability and its access. It's also great for working parents who want convenience, and for patients who are traveling who don't have access to their primary care physician right away.