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News
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ConvUrgentCare Job of the Month
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January 5, 2010
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A major health system in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is looking for a take-charge leader of its urgent care, occupational health and retail clinic operations. It is the perfect example of how the convergence of urgent care and retail clinics is playing out in the job market. For more information, click here.
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MinuteClinic Ends 2009 with More Closures
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January 5, 2010
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MinuteClinic closed nine additional clinic locations in CVS stores in December.
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ConvUrgentCare Symposium Approved for CME Credits
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January 5, 2010
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Room Discount Ends Jan. 11
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The ConvUrgentCare Strategy Symposium has been reviewed and is acceptable for up to 11.75 Elective credits by the American Academy of Family Physicians. If you haven’t registered yet, give us a call to take advantage of the $119 room rate at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Marriott. After Jan. 11 the rate goes up to the Marriott’s standard rate. More information can be found at www.MerchantMedicine.com or click here for a brochure.
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H1N1 Now Available in Retail Clinics
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January 5, 2010
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Call it better late than never, the H1N1 vaccine has finally arrived at all major operators of retail clinics.
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Wal-Mart Adds 8 Clinics in November
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December 2, 2009
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Wal-Mart is climbing back into the pack of leading retailers hosting clinics. As of December 1 Wal-Mart has 46 stores with retail medical clinics compared to 27 at the end of 2008.
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Rob Pantoja Named CFO of the Year
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December 2, 2009
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The Little Clinic’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Rob Pantoja has been named CFO of the Year by the Nashville Business Journal, and with good reason.
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Merchant Medicine Begins Tracking Urgent Care Clinics
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December 2, 2009
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Starting earlier this fall, Merchant Medicine began tracking urgent care clinics in the United States and posting the results under a separate tab on its home page map.
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ConvUrgentCare Strategy Symposium Agenda Set
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November 5, 2009
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The second annual ConvUrgentCareTM Strategy Symposium is set for January 26th and 27th in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The agenda is headed by Karen Bowling, CEO of Solantic. Case studies will be presented covering most strategic options for walk-in medicine, including Cox Health, which operates five clinics inside Wal-Mart stores.
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MinuteClinic to Move Headquarters
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November 4, 2009
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Central operations to be consolidated with CVS headquarters in Woonsocket, R.I.
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MinuteClinic Forms Second Health System Partnership
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November 3, 2009
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Allina Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota and MinuteClinic team up under an agreement very similar to the one with The Cleveland Clinic.
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Flu Shots Start Early
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October 4, 2009
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Flu is spreading quickly and demand for shots is strong.
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Retail Clinics Measure Up
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October 4, 2009
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Rand study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine has good things to say about retail clinics.
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See Full Article
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Major Operators Resume Clinic Openings
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October 4, 2009
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MinuteClinic, Take Care and The Little Clinic all open multiple locations.
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See Full Article
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Three Steps Forward, Four Steps Back for Wal-Mart
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September 1, 2009
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Closings overshadow new clinic operators in Wal-Mart stores.
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See Full Article
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Texas Loosens NP Regulations
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September 1, 2009
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The State of Texas has loosened physician supervision requirements of nurse practitioners as of September 1.
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Rapid Test for Pink Eye Gains Traction
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September 1, 2009
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The diagnosis and treatment of conjunctivitis (pink eye) in retail clinics is about to change.
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Jewel-Osco to Launch its First Retail Clinic in Chicago
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August 3, 2009
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The move could signal major expansion in an already crowded market.
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Take Care Study Connects Workplace Health and Medication Compliance
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August 3, 2009
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Study shows increasing sophistication of Take Care's combined retail clinic and workplace clinic division.
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CVS Caremark Names New President of MinuteClinic
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August 3, 2009
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Andrew J. Sussman, M.D., replaces Chip Phillips as head of the retail clinic unit.
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See Full Article
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Wal-Mart Won't Meet Original Projections
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July 2, 2009
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Retailer tells Dow Jones it is still committed to retail clinic program.
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See Full Article
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MinuteClinic Closes 11 Locations in Texas
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July 2, 2009
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Largest retail clinic operator continues "seasonal" downsizing.
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See Full Article
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Moving Low-Cost Care Away from Insurance
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June 6, 2009
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A New York Times article captures the future of primary care and health insurance.
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See Full Article
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Retail Clinics on Hold in Massachusetts
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June 2, 2009
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A policy memo around plumbing code belatedly affects openings.
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Closures in Milwaukee and South Florida
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June 1, 2009
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Broward Health exits while The Little Clinic cuts back in South Florida. Aurora health closes four more clinics in Milwaukee.
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See Full Article
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Clinic Operators Gear Up for H1N1
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May 3, 2009
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The swine flu outbreak has caused virtually all retail clinic operators to prepare for large numbers of patient visits.
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See Full Article
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A Quiet Month for Retail Clinics
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May 3, 2009
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The retail clinic market saw only seven clinic openings in April. But compared to this time last year, market share has changed significantly.
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See Full Article
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Synovate Flu Shot Study Misses the Point
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April 2, 2009
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A study released in late February by Synovate Healthcare, a market research firm, came to an unusual conclusion about flu shots in retail clinics.
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MinuteClinic Closes 89 Locations - Updated
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March 9, 2009
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It appears that MinuteClinic is in the middle of a major "seasonal" restructuring of clinics across the country.
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See Full Article
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Clinic Openings Go into Hibernation
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March 1, 2009
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Growth has slowed to a trickle in anticipation of the traditional offseason.
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See Full Article
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Cleveland Clinic Partners with MinuteClinic
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February 13, 2009
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This partnership may not be just about physician oversight.
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See Full Article
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New Towers Perrin Healthcare Study Released
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February 12, 2009
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Study Outlines Strategies of High-Performing Companies
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Towers Perrin has just released results from its 2009 Health Care Cost Survey, which shows that high-performing companies will pay, on average, 12% less in annual health care premiums in 2009 compared to low-performing companies.
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See Full Article
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Wasson Becomes New Walgreens CEO
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January 27, 2009
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Wasson has been instrumental in Walgreens’ move to become a major player in the retail clinic industry.
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See Full Article
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MinuteClinic Pulls Out of Portland and Seattle
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January 26, 2009
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MinuteClinic has ended its relationship with QFC grocery stores and closed its clinics in Portland and Seattle.
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See Full Article
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Take Care Health Launches Employer-Centric Pharmacy and Health Care Offering
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January 14, 2009
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The new program called Complete Care and Well-Being is aimed at employers and intends to help reduce health care and prescription costs.
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See Full Article
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RediClinic Pulls out of Walmart
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January 2, 2009
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In early December RediClinic made the decision to pull out of 15 Walmart locations where it had been operating retail clinics. The company operated nine Walmart locations in Richmond, VA, two in Atlanta, two in Northwest Arkansas and two in Tulsa.
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See Full Article
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$1,000 Deductible the Norm in 2008
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December 1, 2008
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Mercer released a study just before Thanksgiving that shows the median deductible has jumped from $500 to $1,000 since 2007.
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See Full Article
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Insight
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Where Do We Go From Here?
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February 3, 2010
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Annual Retail Clinic Growth Forecast
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We are all familiar with the predictions of a booming retail clinic industry. But if you think those predictions have ceased, think again. Merchant Medicine estimates 2,050 retail clinics by the end of 2014.
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See Full Article
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The Retail Clinic Market in 2009
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January 5, 2010
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Growth Continued Amid Caution
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2000 was the decade of retail clinics. It began with one QuickMedx inside a Cub Foods grocery store in Minneapolis/St. Paul and ended with 1,183 clinics inside retail stores in 39 states (plus the District of Columbia) and 43 of the top 50 metro areas.
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The Retail Partnership Conundrum
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December 2, 2009
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Finding the Right Retail Partner is a Challenge These Days
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“Our challenge right now is having the right partner relationship to make this happen, but the choices are pretty limited in our view.” Those words, spoken by a health system executive, are not uncommon these days from organizations who are interested in opening retail clinics but who have had difficulty finding the right retail platform. This is especially true of health systems that operate in multiple states. Many experts say you should shoot for one retailer. But as we document in this article, if you can let go of having to have a national retailer and an exclusive relationship, your opportunities open up significantly. (Subscription required)
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ConvUrgentCare Industry Profile
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November 16, 2009
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Karen Bowling, CEO, Solantic Walk-In Urgent Care Centers
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Of any company we have followed in the retail healthcare space, Solantic seems to hit all the strategic buttons: stand-alone urgent care centers in high-traffic shopping centers, clinics in Wal-Mart, joint ventures with area health systems, a clinic in the Orlando airport, franchises for physicians, outstanding consumer marketing and a relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction.
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See Full Article
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Urgent Care Centers Weather the Retail Clinic Storm
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November 3, 2009
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Patient Volumes Not Affected
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Most operators of urgent care centers agree that retail clinics haven't really affected their patient volumes. In fact, many report getting referrals from retail clinics for symptoms outside the retail clinic scope. The recession has had a much greater impact on urgent care patient volumes. Includes a chart of the top urgent care operators in the United States. (Subscription required)
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Lines Blur Between Convenient Care and Urgent Care
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October 3, 2009
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The Emergence of Convergence
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Over the long term, it could be that seasonality is the least of a retail clinic operator’s worries. As we noted last month in an article about the long road to breakeven for retail clinic operators, traditional medical practices are taking a page out of the retail clinic playbook and focusing more than ever on patient convenience and consumer marketing. The result is a trend that we call “ConvUrgentCare™,” the merging of convenient care, urgent care and any type of walk-in medicine that involves non-emergent acute medical care. Today you can see retail clinic techniques crossing over not only to urgent care and emergency care, but also pediatrics, family medicine and work-site clinics. And these techniques appear to be working to change the game in walk-in medicine.
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See Full Article
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The Long Road to Breakeven
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September 1, 2009
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How close are MinuteClinic and Take Care?
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Probably a lot further than you think. Based on the latest earnings teleconference from CVS Caremark and our own calculations of average patient visits per hour, it won’t be until 2012. And even that might be a stretch. (Subscription required)
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Telemedicine in the Hands of Major Healthcare Players
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August 3, 2009
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UHG and Cisco Partner
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Cisco, the largest network technology company in the world, and United Health Group’s Ingenix Consulting division, joined together on a telemedicine venture called Connected Care. At the same time United Health Group hired James (Woody) Woodburn, MD, as its chief medical officer for the new venture. Dr. Woodburn was MinuteClinic’s chief medical officer up until the middle of 2007.
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See Full Article
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Future of Retail Clinics: Part 2
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July 2, 2009
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Using Atul Gawande's New Yorker Article as a Guide
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Dr. Gawande’s article has garnered more high-level attention since the Dartmouth Atlas Project. It also helps point the way for retail clinics.
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See Full Article
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Future of Retail Clinics: Part 1
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June 2, 2009
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Using Clayton Christiansen's new book as a guide
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Seldom do you find a business that is talked about in such divergent terms. Patients love retail clinics for the convenience and cost. Many policy leaders look at the macroeconomics of healthcare and say how could retail clinics not succeed. But it’s not hard to find current or former retail clinic management who see it as a bust. Could this industry be on the verge of collapse? Or is it here to stay and prosper?
To help structure the answer, we turn to two definitional healthcare policy works that provide guideposts for walk-in medicine. This month we look at a relatively new book by Clayton Christiansen, called The Innovator’s Prescription. We’ll summarize some of the points of the book that seem relevant to retail healthcare, and then provide some potential paths forward. Next month we’ll look at Atul Gawande’s most recent article in The New Yorker, "The Cost Conundrum."
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Retail Clinic Legislation -- A Rundown of Recent Policy Initiatives
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May 3, 2009
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By Caroline Ridgeway, JD
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The retail clinic industry has faced a number of legislative and regulatory challenges during the past few years. Caroline Ridgeway of the Convenient Care Association provides an overview of how these initiatives have evolved.
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See Full Article
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Retail Clinics by Metro Area
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April 2, 2009
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A geographic look at clinic saturation and demand
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It was once assumed that clinics in retail stores would show up in just about every major metropolitan area across the United States. This month we take a look at what markets are not as well as which ones are reaching saturation.
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See Full Article
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A Travel Industry Giant Drops in on Healthcare
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March 1, 2009
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A Profile of Hal Rosenbluth
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He has lived in the world of corporate travel management and now the world of healthcare. Oddly enough, the corporate travel world seems to know a lot more about Hal Rosenbluth than the healthcare world. But that may be about to change.
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See Full Article
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On-Site Employer Clinics
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February 3, 2009
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Disruptive Innovation Times Two
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The concept has been around for about as long as employee health insurance, perhaps longer. But now these clinics are back because of rising health costs and flat wage increases. Questions remain around the return on investment, the role employers should take with employee health, the definition of a medical home, and just how many employees it takes to make an on-site clinic work.
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See Full Article
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Retail Clinics: 2008 Year-End Review and 2009 Outlook
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January 5, 2009
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Many closures in 2008 but the market continues to expand
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2008 will go down as the year that logic and reason overtook the retail clinic market, much the way it did with the technology market in 2000. Read about how the major players ended 2008 and what 2009 will bring.
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See Full Article
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Key Factors in Retail Clinic Growth
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December 1, 2008
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A recent study by the Rand Corporation and the California Healthcare Foundation predicts that the number of retail clinics in the United States could reach 6,000 by 2011. Indeed, despite the brief slide last June, the number of retail clinics in the United States is back in growth mode. Read why reaching 6,000 clinics by 2011 is all but impossible as well as what will continue to drive this industry.
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See Full Article
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Retail Clinics and the Changing Primary Care Landscape
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November 1, 2008
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There is a growing body of physician groups and health systems that are looking at retail clinics through a different lens. They would argue that despite the criticisms from many physicians, there are many counter arguments that support the need for retail clinics.
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See Full Article
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Retail Clinics and the November Election
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October 1, 2008
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As the market for retail clinics reaches critical mass and the number of those employed directly or indirectly is becoming quite large, many people in this industry are wondering whether the outcome of the 2008 presidential election could have a positive or negative impact on a booming market.
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See Full Article
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Health Systems Take On The Big Shots
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September 1, 2008
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103 Clinics Now Operated Under Health System Brands
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We are seeing the development of a new model that could be the beginning of local hospital systems becoming national players.
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See Full Article
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Primary Care Meets Private Investor
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August 1, 2008
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Former Retail Clinic Operators Share Lessons Learned
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It all seemed so simple. Open a clinic inside a busy retail store with a pharmacy and patients will come. For many, it didn't work out that way. Several former operators provide some of the lessons they learned.
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See Full Article
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Key "Must Haves" in Building Patient Volume
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July 1, 2008
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Most retail clinics aren’t seeing anywhere near the patient visits their operators thought they would by this time. But does all this mean the retail clinic business is a bust? The answer is no.
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See Full Article
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Retail Clinics in the United States
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Total Retail Clinics:
1,197
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Total Number of States:
40
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Total Number of Operators:
70
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Total Retailers:
41
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Total Hospital Systems:
52
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