Retail Clinics

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens and the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care have announced that all of the more than 50 primary care worksite health centers managed by Take Care Employer Solutions Group, a division of Walgreens that provides workplace health solutions, have received medical home accreditation.

WASHINGTON — Led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former Senator John Breaux, D-La., the Alliance for Connected Care has been launched to promote policy reform around telehealth and remote patient monitoring.

Board members of the Alliance include CVS Caremark, Walgreens, Teladoc, HealthSpot, Doctor on Demand, Welch Allyn, MDLIVE, Care Innovations, Cardinal Health, Verizon and WellPoint.

NASHVILLE — The Little Clinic continues to expand its geographic footprint with openings this month inside Kroger stores in the Cincinnati region and Louisville, Ky.

On Feb. 12, the company opened its newest clinic inside the Kroger Marketplace in Middletown, Ohio.

"Wherever you are in Cincinnati, one of our clinics is not far away," said Ken Patric, chief medical officer for The Little Clinic. "Adding additional clinics in the area allows a greater number of consumers close access to convenient, quality healthcare.”

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Forging ahead on its longer-term goal of creating a national platform to support primary care, CVS Caremark plans to open up at least 150 new MinuteClinic locations this year and is now testing telehealth at more than two-dozen sites.

With a primary care physician shortage that is expected to reach 45,000 in 2020 and nearly half of patients indicating that they do not have a primary care physician, the role of MinuteClinic is no doubt becoming increasingly vital.

LATHAM, N.Y. —- Price Chopper, QuickCare and Ellis Medicine have teamed up to open QuickCare walk-in clinics in Price Chopper stores in Latham, N.Y. and Malta, N.Y.

The three organizations created the Capital Region partnership to offer residents access to more convenient and efficient healthcare. QuickCare, staffed by an Ellis Medicine nurse practitioner, physician or physician assistant, are walk-in health centers that offer patients immediate help for common ailments and provide some well-care and screening services.

NEW YORK and HOUSTON — Wellness Layers, a provider of health-and-wellness engagement portals, and RediClinic, an operator of retail-based convenient care clinics, has announced the launch of RediClinic’s redesigned Weigh Forward portal.

GOUVERNEUR, N.Y. and SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Regional player Kinney Drugs has teamed up with Pulmonary Health Physicians, PC and Franciscan Companies (an affiliate of St. Joseph’s Hospital) to open the Healthy You Wellness Center at a Kinney Drugs location in Syracuse. 
 

WASHINGTON — As the interest in telemedicine programs continues to grow, a recent Rand study found that people who are younger, more affluent and do not have established healthcare relationships are more likely to use a telemedicine program that allows patients to get medical help for acute ailments — including prescriptions — by talking to a doctor over the telephone.