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More Insight
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September 7, 2010
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Here Come the Flu Shots
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Why This Year Marks the Start of Something Different
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In case you missed it, in the last two years the start of the flu shot season has moved up considerably. And the implications for retail clinics are mostly positive. In fact, this could be the best news retail clinics have seen in a long time.
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August 4, 2010
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Does Walk-In Medicine Still Face a Practitioner Shortage?
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The recruitment fever has quieted down and most operators of urgent care and convenient care clinics say they are managing recruitment in a much more sustainable manner. But that could change over the next few years. In this article we look at the patient-centered medical home model and how that may impact the recruitment of advanced practice clinicians.
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July 6, 2010
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2010 Metro Area Report
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A Geographic Look at Clinic Saturation
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This month we feature our annual look at retail and urgent care clinics through the lens of metro areas. To do this we used the U.S. Census Bureau’s standardized list of metro areas, listing the metro area name, Census Bureau population estimate, population rank, total retail clinics, total urgent care clinics, total combined clinics and the number of clinics per 100,000 people. This report includes a supplement that covers nearly 600 cities in the United States.
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June 3, 2010
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Formulating a ConvUrgentCare Strategy
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Asking the Right Questions
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This month is the third anniversary of the start of Merchant Medicine and we thought it would be a good time to review what we and our clients agree are the most important questions to ask about a local geography.
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May 3, 2010
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ConvUrgentCare and Heallthcare Reform
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How Retail and Urgent Care Clinics are Affected
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There have been a lot of predictions lately on how the new healthcare reform legislation will affect retail and urgent care clinics. There certainly will be some impact in the short term, but the form it takes might surprise you. What is far more interesting for retail and urgent care clinics is the long-term impact, if scenarios like the re-emergence of full-risk capitation programs or the rapid penetration of high-deductible health plans could play out.
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April 5, 2010
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Growth of the Hispanic Healthcare Market
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An Opportunity for Walk-In Medicine
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Marketing healthcare services to specific ethnicities can be a difficult undertaking. Even talking about it might create a certain discomfort that you’ll say something politically incorrect or be taken the wrong way. But the fact is all ethnic populations need healthcare services. Although this article focuses on people of Hispanic origin, there is insight here for any ethnicity when looking to expand your reach.
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March 2, 2010
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Worksite Clinic Business Goes Back into Growth Mode
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Employers Attempt to Take Control of Costs
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Over the last 12 months the markets have recovered modestly. And although unemployment remains a significant challenge, health and productivity programs seem to be kicking back into gear, and worksite clinics are among the most popular options.
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February 3, 2010
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Where Do We Go From Here?
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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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December 2, 2009
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The Retail Partnership Conundrum
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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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November 16, 2009
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ConvUrgentCare Industry Profile
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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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November 3, 2009
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Urgent Care Centers Weather the Retail Clinic Storm
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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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October 3, 2009
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Lines Blur Between Convenient Care and Urgent Care
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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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September 1, 2009
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The Long Road to Breakeven
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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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August 3, 2009
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Telemedicine in the Hands of Major Healthcare Players
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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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July 2, 2009
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Future of Retail Clinics: Part 2
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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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June 2, 2009
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Future of Retail Clinics: Part 1
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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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May 3, 2009
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Retail Clinic Legislation -- A Rundown of Recent Policy Initiatives
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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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April 2, 2009
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Retail Clinics by Metro Area
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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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March 1, 2009
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A Travel Industry Giant Drops in on Healthcare
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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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February 3, 2009
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On-Site Employer Clinics
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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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January 5, 2009
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Retail Clinics: 2008 Year-End Review and 2009 Outlook
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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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December 1, 2008
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Key Factors in Retail Clinic Growth
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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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November 1, 2008
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Retail Clinics and the Changing Primary Care Landscape
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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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October 1, 2008
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Retail Clinics and the November Election
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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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September 1, 2008
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Health Systems Take On The Big Shots
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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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August 1, 2008
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Primary Care Meets Private Investor
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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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July 1, 2008
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Key "Must Haves" in Building Patient Volume
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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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