Reuters
April 24, 2007
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday that it will contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics in the next two to three years.
Should current market forces continue, the world’s largest retailer said up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years.
It has said the clinics are expected to boost the health of its shoppers and should also help sales by drawing consumers into its stores.
“We think the clinics will be a great opportunity for our business. But most importantly, they are going to provide something our customers and communities desperately need — affordable access at the local level to quality health care,” said Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott in a statement.
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
We desperately need to reinforce our rapidly deteriorating primary care infrastructure. It would provide us with greater access to higher quality, comprehensive health care, and would do so at a lower cost.
The Wal-Mart clinics actually will improve accessibility to the limited services that they offer, and do so at affordable rates. But the clinics would further fragment services that should be provided at the primary care medical home. They skim off the easy, low-cost, bread-and-butter medical services that help pay the overhead expenses of primary care practices. They also fragment patients’ medical records, such as creating uncertainty as to their immunization status, uncertainty in monitoring of their chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and uncertainty as to medication compliance and drug incompatibilities. These clinics threaten to accelerate the further demise of the medical home.
As long as we continue to reject a comprehensive government solution to our health care crisis, the private sector will always be ready with profitable innovations. Does anyone seriously believe that we should continue to observe from the sidelines the Walmartization of health care? Apparently so, judging by the inertia.