In-store clinics: a careful balancing act

In-store walk-in clinics are popping up near the pharmacy counters at drug, supermarket and mass merchandise stores coast to coast, and Supervalu’s pharmacies are no exception. But the company’s foray into ambulatory patient care will be more of a steady and careful march than a full-scale assault, its leaders indicate.

On its home turf, Supervalu gradually is expanding its presence in walk-in clinical care through a partnership between Now Medical, an urgent care company based in Minnesota, and its Cub Foods pharmacies. Some half-dozen Now Care Clinics are now open adjacent to Cub pharmacies.

Supervalu also is expanding its in-store clinic base in the St. Louis market and in Idaho, and is “actively working on growing it,” according to Supervalu pharmacy president Chris Dimos.

To this point, however, Supervalu has not chosen a national alliance with a single clinical-care vendor, like Walgreens with Take Care Health or CVS with MinuteClinic. “If we came across a national player that fits well with us, we’re not ruling it out,” Dimos said. “It would be easier for us to manage one relationship with a national [clinic] player, as opposed to several. We just want to make sure we are aligned in our strategic vision of what role this plays in our pharmacies.

“We need to make sure that as these clinics roll into our stores, that there is a synergy between our pharmacists’ clinical services and the clinic,” he added. “We’d like to make sure our pharmacists play a role in clinical care of patients.”

A case in point is Supervalu’s immunization program. “It’s not just a flu shot program. It’s a year-round immunization program,” Dimos said. “Where allowed by law, we’re doing flu shots and many other types of vaccines, such as Zostavax, Gardasil, Tetanus and will soon be offering travel vaccines. We’re looking at it much more broadly. And that’s one of those areas where we have to make sure we don’t delegate away that pharmacist-patient interaction.

“We believe clinics have a place in the future of health care. It’s hard to be against convenient local care. It’s about overall health care,” he said.