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More walk-in clinics to open

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo courtesy of MinuteClinic Four MinuteClinics, like this one in Eagan, Minn., are expected to open Monday in CVS drugstores in suburban Maryland.

MinuteClinics, staffed by nurse practitioners who diagnose and treat ailments and write prescriptions, are designed to meet the needs of shoppers and busy families for convenient and affordable care, said founder and CEO Linda Hall Whitman.

‘‘These are for people with busy lives,” Whitman said. ‘‘Adults are comprising 65 percent of our patients, who want the undivided attention of an exquisitely trained technician.”

Trish Hughes, manager of the new sites and their 14 new employees, said, ‘‘I think the potential of these clinics to heal people has already been realized.”

Company officials say they expect their Minnesota clinics this year to treat 45,000 cases of strep throat and 25,000 cases of ear infections, the leading two conditions at MinuteClinics.

Other common ailments treated include pinkeye, sinus infections, allergies, bronchitis and female bladder infections. MinuteClinic also offers common vaccinations, such as those for flu, tetanus, pneumonia, measles-mumps-rubella and hepatitis A and B.

MinuteClinics have provided nearly 300,000 patient visits with 99 percent customer satisfaction on quality surveys filled out by 78 percent of customers, according to Whitman said. She said many parents like MinuteClinic because they don’t need an appointment and can get treatment and fill a prescription at same time.

‘‘You are not allowed to send a child back to school right away with pinkeye, for example,” Whitman said. ‘‘This provides fast-as-you- can-get-it care.”

The privately held Minnesota company operates 40 clinics in groceries, pharmacies and office buildings in Baltimore, Annapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, Tenn., and Indianapolis. The company has 11 locations in Maryland, including the four new locations, with six in Target stores and five in CVS drugstores. Local physicians are on call at all the locations, Whitman said.

The average visit lasts 10 to 15 minutes, she said, and patients can shop in the store as they wait for a MinuteClinic buzzer indicating their turn at the clinic.

Such walk-in clinics are a growing nationwide trend, said competitor Webb Golinkin, CEO of Interfit Health Inc., the parent of RediClinic of Houston. RediClinics are in Wal-Mart and other stores in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, with plans for more in New York City.

Customers more pressed for time than ever translates into one-stop shopping, Golinkin said.

‘‘That is why there is banking, flower shops, coffee shops and more in grocery stores,” Golinkin said. ‘‘In fact, that is what the super Wal-Mart center is all about.”

The quick clinics are not trying to supplant doctors, he said, but supplement them. ‘‘You may have to make a special trip across town to get to your doctor, read some magazines while you wait, and then eventually you’re treated.”

Another walk-in clinic competitor, Take Care Health Centers, run by Take Care Health Systems Inc. of Conshohocken, Pa., signed a deal in July with Rite Aid Corp. to open 10 clinics in Rite Aid’s stores in Portland, Ore., by Nov. 1. The company in September agreed to open similar clinics at Brooks Eckerd pharmacies in multiple markets.

MinuteClinic was formerly QuickMedX, but the first version failed because of difficulties landing backers and insurers, Whitman said, and the enterprise needed to be restructured.

‘‘It is a very expensive thing to finance,” she said.

Whitman said potential drug and allergy interactions are built into the ‘‘decision-making software” at every MinuteClinic. Patient records from when they are first triaged and then treated by the nurse, along with prescriptions, invoices, diagnostic records and education materials are based on protocols of the American Academy of Pediatricians and the American Academy of Family Physicians. ‘‘Our software does not then allow for decisions that deviate from the protocols,” Whitman said.

Patients are triaged at RediClinics into ‘‘get well” for treatments of cases such as strep throat and ear infections and other common illnesses, and into ‘‘stay well” for blood screenings and other medical tests as well as flu shots and sports physicals, Golinkin said.

Whitman described a similar triage that also includes appropriate referral of patients back to their primary physicians or to an emergency room. Patients who can’t be treated are not charged for their visit, she said.

Low cost is another draw for the in-store clinics, Whitman said. Most treatments cost about $45 at such clinics.

MinuteClinic participates with a network of major Maryland insurers’ preferred provider organizations, including Aetna, Carefirst BCBS, Definity, Johns Hopkins Employer Health Programs, Lumenos and National Claims Administrative Services Inc.

The new MinuteClinics are in CVS stores at 7809 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda; 6920 Laurel Bowie Road, Bowie; 7955 Tuckerman Lane, Rockville; and 2271 Bel Pre Road, Silver Spring.

In a prepared statement, Chris Bodine, executive vice president for merchandising at CVS, said, ‘‘MinuteClinic offers customers convenient, high quality health care services and is a natural extension of our mission to be the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use.”