MemorialCare Health System has entered the growing business of retail health clinics.
The Fountain Valley-based hospital op- erator has opened three MemorialCare HealthExpress clinics inside Albertsons with pharmacies in Huntington Beach, Irvine and Mission Viejo.
The clinics provide basic healthcare, including care for sore throats, ear infections, coughs and colds, as well as vaccinations and flu shots. They also offer sports and school physicals.
“The purpose is to provide something that’s convenient and accessible,” said Shelly Lummus, MemorialCare’s director of retail medicine who’s overseeing the clinics.
MemorialCare appears to be the first hospital operator to get into retail clinics in Orange County. Others here include MinuteClinics inside CVS drugstores and Costa Mesa-based Lindora Inc., which has clinics in some Rite Aid stores.
Retail clinics started in 2000 and have grown as patients look for routine healthcare without having to go to a doctor’s office.
There are about 1,200 retail clinics across the country, according to the Convenient Care Association, a Philadelphia-based trade group. The largest number is found within Wal-Mart stores.
The clinics have drawn some controversy.
Groups such as the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest and questioned the quality of care at retail clinics.
A 2009 study by Santa Monica think tank Rand Corp. found no evidence to back up concerns about retail clinics, which have an average costs of $110 per procedure.
MemorialCare opened its clinics to help keep unnecessary cases out of emergency rooms and to steer patients to its primary care physicians.
“A low-cost, easy place to get some of the simple things seemed to make sense,” MemorialCare Chief Executive Barry Arbuckle said.
MemorialCare has operated urgent care centers near its hospitals for “decades,” Arbuckle said.
Its local hospitals include Fountain Valley’s Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, which has campuses in Laguna Hills and San Clemente.
The hospital operator’s entry into retail health clinics could mark a maturation of the business, according to Arbuckle.
At one time, retail clinics “were growing like crazy, and then all of a sudden they plateaued off,” he said.
Investors grew disinterested in retail clinics after they found that they didn’t offer big profits, according to Arbuckle.
Albertsons, part of Minneapolis-based Supervalu Inc., is no stranger to retail clinics. The company’s other chains, such as Cub Foods and Jewel, have had clinics since 1995, spokeswoman Lilia Rodriguez said.
Paloma Pomerado Health System, a northern San Diego County hospital operator, runs clinics inside Albertsons in Escondido and Rancho Bernardo. They opened in 2008.
Family nurse practitioners staff Mem-orialCare’s clinics.
The healthcare provider hired nurse practitioners with a wide range of experience and clinical background because “you are in an environment where you are working very independently,” MemorialCare’s Lummus said.
“You do interact with the public a lot, so you have to be comfortable talking to people as they’re walking in the grocery store, to let them know what we do and the services we provide,” she said.
The nurses can prescribe routine drugs and are linked to MemorialCare’s electronic medical record system. They can treat patients ages 2 and older. Most patients so far have been adults ages 18 to 44, Lummus said.
The clinics accept cash, check and credit and debit cards and are working on contracts with health insurers, according to Lummus.
MemorialCare has marketed the clinics through word of mouth. Lummus said she’s spoken about them at various community gatherings.
The healthcare provider also has marketed the clinics through newsletters and signs in stores.
MemorialCare’s average investment in building out the clinics is $125,000 per location.
Plans are to evaluate the clinics’ performance in a year or so, according to Arbuckle.
One way of judging performance is whether the clinics are “capturing patients” who aren’t already in MemorialCare’s system and then linking them to a primary care doctor.
MemorialCare doesn’t plan to open more clinics until after it evaluates the initial performance. Arbuckle called it a pilot program.
“We’re going to be in a dialog with Albertsons,” Arbuckle said.
