While retail clinics present a tremendous opportunity for increasing access and convenience, these clinics are much harder to operate successfully than they appear.  At the same time, retail clinic tactics are showing up in more traditional settings, including urgent care clinics, primary care offices, work sites and even the emergency departments of many hospitals.  We call this trend ConvUrgentCare™.

All health care is local.   And these changes have different implications in every market.  Should you open one or more retail clinics?  If so, with which retailer?  Or should you create a convenient fast track in your urgent care or emergency department?  What about work-site clinics?  How should you staff these different implementations?  Should you accept insurance?  What should the hours be?  Should it be open year round?   When will they break even?

The good news is that there’s a lot more known about these approaches today than five years ago.  Whatever your business objectives, Merchant Medicine can help with strategic planning and implementation that works within the dynamics of your organization and geographic market.  Through the market data we collect and the strategic frameworks we employ, we can help you assess available market size, competition, growth and reimbursement trends, all of which helps construct realistic proforma P&L statements.  Our services range from fixed-price/fixed-term market viability assessments to retainer arrangements for clients who want ongoing assistance and access to data services.

Employers of all sizes are under extreme pressure to find ways to reduce healthcare costs beyond traditional methods. The worksite clinic is talked about as the next wave in taking direct control of health management and could perhaps be an even larger market than retail clinics. Your health system may have the ability to offer on-site clinic outsourcing services to local employers in a way that could give greater visibility to your brand and enable you to become a stronger asset within your community. And an on-site clinic strategy is a perfect complement to an urgent care or retail clinic strategy.  Not only are the economics similar, but there are strong opportunities for cross promotion between the two.  Do you have time to research the business case for management? Let us help you bring a plan to management based on sound research and practical implementation strategies.