Nonurgent care clinics tested at select Wal-Marts

The in-store clinics will be run independent of the retail giant and staffed by physician extenders.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Oct. 17, 2005.

If anyone needed more evidence that the concept of the clinic in a retail store was gaining more traction, witness the latest entrant in this business -- Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has become the latest retailer to rent space to medical clinics staffed by physician extenders assigned to treat minor, nonurgent conditions such as colds and sore throats. Physicians themselves are not on site.

What Wal-Mart is doing is no different from what Safeway grocery stores are doing in the Washington, D.C., area, renting space to Starbucks, banks and dry cleaners to offer better service to customers, said American Hospital Assn. spokesman Rick Wade.

"It's as much a sign of how people are living their lives, how fast-paced things are and how multitasked people are," Wade said. "So I think the phenomenon of the clinic in the store or in the mall is here to stay."

As part of a test, the world's largest company is renting space to four organizations that will open medical clinics at 12 of its stores in Arkansas, Indiana, Florida and Oklahoma. So far, three have opened, and the remainder are expected to open by Jan. 31, 2006.

Whether Wal-Mart will add clinics in more stores will depend on how shoppers at the testing stores respond, said Sharon Weber, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Though exact numbers aren't available, analysts agree that the concept of in-store medical clinics is already growing. For example, on Sept. 29, MinuteClinic announced that it would add nearly 60 clinics in 10 unidentified cities by year's end. The Minneapolis-based company now has 40 outlets in CVS, Target, Cub Foods and other retailers in Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota and Tennessee.