Rite Aid opens Mid-Atlantic physician-run retail clinics

Drug Store News, April 21, 2008 by Michael Johnsen

COLUMBIA, Md. -- Rite Aid will be opening retail clinics at four locations in Baltimore and Washington this summer with clinic partner MedStar Health, to be called MedStar PromptCare clinics, as Rite Aid continues to pursue a strategy of regional partnerships in delivering the retail clinic concept through the Rite Aid brand.

"Our strategy has been quite a bit different than our other competitors, in that we really work to partner with local, well-recognized health providers," Mary Sammons, Rite Aid chairman, president and chief executive officer, explained to investor analysts earlier this month. "In this instance, [it] happens to be a physician-staffed clinic." Sammons said that conceivably will deliver a more complete healthcare experience to customers.

For example, the MedStar PromptCare physicians will be credentialed by and have admitting privileges to MedStar Health's hospitals, including Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center in Washington, as well as Montgomery General Hospital in Montgomery County, Md., and Franklin Square Hospital Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Harbor Hospital and Union Memorial Hospital, all located in Baltimore.

Rite Aid has pursued a conservative strategy in partnering with such regional operators as Lindora Health and Sutter Health in California, as opposed to acquiring a dedicated retail clinic operator, such as Walgreens did with Take Care Health or CVS Caremark did with MinuteClinic, in part because retail clinics, as an industry, has yet to build to a critical mass. "On the economics of clinics, for everybody, it's a difficult economic proposition," Sammons said. "Now, it may get better legs in the future, but right now it takes a significant number of patient visits today, and [consistent] patient visits, for even the larger clinic operators to make money," she said. And while there is the benefit of a prescription being written in the store, which is more likely to go to that store's pharmacy than anywhere else, those prescriptions still represent a small percentage of the overall business, Sammons said.