MinuteClinic enters clinical affiliation with Henry Ford Health System

WOONSOCKET, R.I., and DETROIT — Henry Ford Health System is working to increase its capacity to serve patients in metropolitan Detroit through a new collaborative effort with CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic.

MinuteClinic has 10 walk-in clinics inside select CVS/pharmacy stores in Southeast Michigan and is exploring additional locations in the Detroit metropolitan area.

The new affiliation will connect Henry Ford physicians, as on-call medical directors, to the 10 Southeast Michigan locations of MinuteClinic. In addition, MinuteClinic and Henry Ford will collaborate on educating patients and helping them to manage chronic diseases. Henry Ford physicians will accept patients who need a level of care that is not provided at MinuteClinic.

"Henry Ford Health System has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to improving the health and well-being of a diverse community of patients, and shares MinuteClinic's mission to make access to high-quality healthcare services more accessible for area citizens," said Andrew Sussman, president of MinuteClinic and SVP and associate chief medical officer for CVS Caremark. "Our team of nurse practitioners looks forward to collaborating with Henry Ford's physicians to develop a clinical care network that meets the growing healthcare needs in the Detroit metro area."

MinuteClinic and Henry Ford will be developing a plan to provide clinical data integration to streamline communication for each person's care. With patient permission, MinuteClinic will share medical histories and visit summaries with other Henry Ford locations in Southeast Michigan. And MinuteClinic will continue its standard practice of sending visit summaries to the patient's primary care doctor, usually within 24 hours.

This affiliation will not create a financial relationship between MinuteClinic and HFHS. Medical directors will be paid for their services directly by MinuteClinic.