Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid Expand Clinic Offerings
Your local drug store really wants to take your temperature: Leading chains are stepping up the pace of new services offered in their retail clinics, in an attempt to woo new customers with their convenience.
Walgreens just announced that it will now have daily testing available for cholesterol and blood glucose at more than 1,400 pharmacies in 33 says — with each test coming with a free-blood pressure screening.
And Rite Aid is promoting its new capability to vaccinate patients over the age of 50 against shingles, thanks to an expanded age eligibility from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In addition, it’s now offering whooping cough vaccines to parents in California, at some 500 pharmacies.
Sales at these clinics have been growing, up to $733.4 million this year, an increase of 81% per year since 2005, according to a new report from independent health-care market research firm Kalorama Information. And they are “likely to become a durable part of the health-care system,” the firm says in its report, even though the rate of expansion has slowed.
The research company says the growth has come despite the recession, and despite some attempts by say legislatures to curtail retail clinic operations. “For example, Florida limits a doctor to supervising only one clinic, while North Carolina’s law restricts doctors to two supervisees, which could have the same effect,” it says. “These laws could go to the heart of the retail clinic concept, which is that some cost savings will come from using nurse practitioners instead of physicians. Massachusetts has regulated what conditions can be treated in clinics and limits immunizations of kids to flu shots only. New York State is investigating whether retail clinics steer customers towards the in-store pharmacy, and is among several says considering a ban on tobacco sales where a retail location has a clinic.”
More source:
Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid Expand Clinic Offerings - MediaPostRetail Pharmacy Giants Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid Expand Clinic ...
Retail clinics positioned for dramatic growth | Drug Store News
Rite Aid | Retail Healthcare News
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Submited at Monday, May 2nd, 2011 at 8:00 pm on Uncategorized by sofia
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