You better shop around: The rise of retail healthcare

Need shampoo, milk and a medical consultation for a pesky rash? Your corner store can likely now provide all of the above.

That's why retail and healthcare, which may seem like very different industries when it comes to catering to consumers, are actually now on convergent paths.

In the changing healthcare landscape, retailers including CVS Health, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kroger (who owns The Little Clinic) are capitalizing on the opportunity to change how consumers receive a wide variety of healthcare services—leading to unique industry partnerships in their quest to establish themselves as healthcare hubs in their local communities.

“The real potential here is for changing how healthcare is delivered in primary care settings," Walid Gellad, a doctor and professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh, told NPR. The shortage of U.S. primary care doctors—estimated to reach nearly 50,000 by 2030—will likely also fuel retail's growth.

By practicing at the top of their licenses and offering more patient care services, pharmacists can establish themselves as a healthcare provider in the minds of patients. That’s why more pharmacies are offering expanded services like immunizations, diabetes management, and even rapid diagnostic testing and wellness screenings.

Cardinal Health's Jim Scott, senior vice president of national markets, who works with retailers, added that these businesses can take advantage of their convenient locations to offer services aligned with trends in healthier living and an increased focus on health and wellness.

“Retail care is growing because it's bringing care to where patients live and work," Scott said. "Retailers have the unique capability to be one-stop shops by treating a condition and then filling a patient's prescription in the same visit."

In parallel, hospitals and health systems are finding alternative methods to bring convenient care to their patients.

Memorial Hermann has added new types of facilities, including convenient care centers, in high-traffic locations to incentivize patients to use their services. These new touch points could help bring new patients into a system, as the Convenient Care Association estimates that 40 percent of patients who show up at retail clinics do not have a primary care doctor.

In addition to clinics, health systems are also setting up their own retail-like, outpatient pharmacies to combat another troubling obstacle: Studies show that at least 25 percent of patients being discharged from the hospital never pick up their first month's supply of medications. Patients not taking their prescribed medications as directed are more likely to be readmitted within those initial 30 days of discharge, triggering penalties under bundled payment programs.