Hospital system pulls out of retail clinic deal

SSM Health Care made the decision after hearing objections to the arrangement from its physicians.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Nov. 6, 2006.

A St. Louis-based health system says it will terminate a contract to provide doctors to oversee retail-based health clinics in the area.

SSM Health Care has announced that it will end the deal in which its doctors supervise nurse practitioners working at in-store clinics operating out of nine Walgreens stores in St. Louis. The contract, which started in July, is with Take Care Health Systems. SSM will stop providing those services to the Conshohocken, Pa.-based company effective Feb. 1, 2007.

"Our decision is about listening to, and respecting, the concerns of our physicians," according to a letter dated Oct. 10 that SSM CEO Ronald J. Levy sent to the health system's medical staff. "We continue to believe that retail-based health clinics like Take Care Health are being developed in response to the growing consumer demand for convenient and accessible health care services, particularly for those who don't have a primary medical home."

Despite that sentiment, SSM reconsidered its partnership with Take Care because "an increasing number of physicians, particularly pediatricians, have voiced concerns about retail-based health clinics," Levy wrote.

SSM declined to elaborate on the nature of those concerns, referring AMNews to the letter.

But SSM spokeswoman Stacey Thomson said the doctors who complained were not employed by SSM and weren't asked to help out with the in-store clinics. "It was a different group of physicians who referred patients to our network who opposed the [in-store clinic] model. SSM as a whole still very much believes in this model. It's a great thing for the environment in and of itself, but we have to listen to our physicians and that's what we did."