Retail Healthcare

The first retail clinics appeared in 2000 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and were operated by QuickMedx, which later became Minute Clinic.

The company's founder, Rick Krieger, says the business idea came to him when he tried to get his son to see a doctor for a strep throat test and after a two hour wait, finally got one. After that, Krieger knew there had to be a quicker, more convenient way.
WHAT'S DRIVING RETAIL HEALTHCARE?
  • Easy Accessibility
  • Convenience
  • Quality Care
  • Quick Service
WHY RETAILERS ARE INTERESTED?
  • Drive home their offer around health and wellness
  • Increase customer footfalls, time spent in the store
  • Increased Pharmacy, OTC revenue to increase store margins
PARTNERSHIPS
There are principally two partnership models
1. Retailer partnering with hospital/clinic operator
2. Pharmacy retailer partnering with hospital/clinic operator
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Traditionally healthcare has been delivered in a hospital or clinic setting worldwide. The delivery of modern healthcare has been compartmentalised based on speciality and location. While this system has its advantages but in the recent past it has been severely curtailing the access to care. The inflexibility and inconvenience inherent in obtaining healthcare from only hospital locations severely restricts consumer choices and consumption.

In recent years retail based medical clinics have evolved as a viable and profitable remedy to the problem outlined above. Existing location advantage, familiar surroundings and widely varied service mix for common healthcare makes retail based medical clinics an almost failsafe investment. This is witnessed in over 2000 clinics being established in the US in 2006.

Medical clinics co-located with retail outlets in varying sizes and service mix offer a more convenient option for accessing medical care. The existing customer base of retail outlets in question would almost naturally gravitate to such healthcare options being offered in the same location. However, let us not be lulled into thinking that healthcare is piggy backing on retail here. As retailers look for newer growth strategies, healthcare seems the most logical and exciting option. It has been proved internationally that the healthcare providers and retailers grow synergistically in which there is a classic win-win paradigm: convenience and accessibility for the consumer, increased footfalls for the retailer, easy entry and sharp growth for the provider.

Internationally, healthcare retail is taking place in the following settings:
Pharmacies (such as CVS)
Mass merchandisers (such as Wal-Mart)
Local grocery stores (such as Kroger)

“Leena Gupta a mother of two gets up in the morning to take her younger son for immunisation to the clinic located in supermarket where she also does her grocery shopping. The nurse in the clinic provides the immunisation dose to the child. After Leena does her daily grocery shopping, she collects her husband’s cholesterol report and also purchases medicines for lower back pain advised by the clinic doctor.”

If convenience is key to healthcare retail clinics, besides big box retailers, retail clinics could also be located at airports, colleges on-site in large and mid-sized corporations. The avenues are unlimited.As retail clinics plug the much needed void in the healthcare spectrum one would witness strategic alliances in the retail and healthcare industry. The restraints would be the regulatory environment, the availability of human resources and technology. While the retail clinics would address most of the basic needs of the healthcare consumers, its growth and attractiveness over a period of time would be limited by its range and depth of specialised offerings. This is a derivative of space, cost, locational factors in the host retail store.

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