Retail Healthcare Clinics: the Customer is in the Driver’s Seat

Just one of three ways Davis Wince believes retail and healthcare are coming together.

by Buck Wince, AIA, LEED AP

Consumers “are shifting their demand for healthcare away from expensive, conventional physician offices with limited hours to affordable and convenient retail clinics.” This is the assessment of Mark Perry, noted American economist at the University of Michigan.

Earlier this year the Wall Street Journal printed the startling statistic that physician visits and hospital admissions dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2010.  At the same time, Drug Store News reported a 36% rise in visits to MinuteClinics during the second quarter.

These trends indicate a preference for market- and consumer-driven options such as affordable, convenient retail health care clinics over the traditional physician’s office, often bogged down in massive paper work and long waits for appointments.

Where is this situation leading?

1. Minute Clinics- The first CVS-owned Minute Clinic opened in the Twin Cities in 2000.  Now the chain numbers 560 units in 25 states. Service is on a walk-in, non-appointment basis, and is administered by family nurse practitioners and physician assistants.  The staff is trained to deliver health screenings and vaccinations and treat common illnesses, minor injuries, and skin conditions.

In a reaction to the proliferation of the CVS version of retail medicine, Mayo Clinic-affiliated Albert Lea Medical Center, created a 262-square-foot kiosk in a Minneapolis-area mall and the Mayo Clinic itself developed its Express Care clinic in Rochester, MN.  The affiliation with a nationally recognized leader in health care gives more authority to the concept, but the services are very similar to the MinuteClinic.

2. Express Care Clinics in Large-Scale Retail Stores- Retailers such as Target, Walmart, and ShopKo have joined the express-clinic trend with in-store facilities. Walmart has gone the route of partnering with local hospitals and leasing out space to medical-clinic companies such as Saltanic, which has doctors on staff and offers a wider range of services including x-rays.

Target has taken a slower, more experimental approach after closing the MinuteClinics it had opened in a limited number of stores. In 2010, the Minneapolis-based retailer undertook the greatest expansion in in-store offices since 2007, opening eight new Target Clinics – five in Chicago and three in Palm Beach, FL.  Previously the company had operated 28 clinics in just two states: Minnesota and Maryland.

3. Retail: Designing for the Customer Experience- In a previous post “Preparing for the Healthcare Redesign?” we emphasized the role that consumer choice, cost-conscious design, and adaptability will play in heath care facility design in the future.  Of these basic considerations, the role of the consumer is probably the most significant.

With the number of express clinics growing exponentially as a result of a poor economy and rising health care costs, competition will put the customer in the driver’s seat.  Although the choice of clinics is often a matter of convenience, customers are fickle, and as is true in retail, the facility that offers the most satisfying customer experience will win out in the end.

Davis Wince has the experience and creativity to handle the challenges of this growing retail segment, having designed projects in both healthcare and retail.  Contact Jennifer Bobbitt at jbobbitt@daviswince.com to discuss opportunities in express-health-clinic planning and design.

By JBobbitt on 1/10/11, In Architecture, Feature, Healthcare, Tags Healthcare, healthcare architecture, hospital design, medical technology, Retail Architecture