Rite Aid Acquires RediClinic, Pushes Into Patient Care
By Hannah Ash, contributing writer
Merging Healthcare With Retail Commerce
With Rite Aid making moves recently to introduce patient care to its showrooms, its recent acquisition of Houston-based medical clinics is not a surprise. In March, Rite Aid launched its Health Alliance Program, a program through which patients shift their care plans from the medical office to the supply center (Rite Aid) where they receive their treatments. The Health Alliance program brings Care Coaches directly into the showroom; care coaches help patients break down their care plans into achievable, followable steps.
“RediClinic is a pioneer and a leader in the retail clinic industry, having provided high-quality, convenient and affordable healthcare to nearly one and a half million people since opening its first clinic in 2005,” Rite Aid chairman and CEO John Standley states. RediClinics are ‘retail clinics;’ they are created out of a need for convenient care that doesn’t require appointments. These clinics can treat up to 30 common conditions, and RediClinic clinicians are certified to write prescriptions to treat these conditions as needed. Staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, each Rediclinic works with physicians connected with a leading hospital system in the market area.
Both Standley and RediClinic CEO Web Golinkin indicated that plans for expansion beyond Texas are on the horizon. With Rite Aid’s 4,600 plus stores in 31 states, expansion could be huge as its possible RediClinics will begin opening up in the chain’s stores. This blurring the lines between health care retailer and health care provider appears to be part of a new trend, with health sector capital venturist Ashley Ledbetter Dombkowski, PH.D, forecasting, “we will also see more care move out of centralized institutions into alternate settings: walk-in clinics in drugstores and airports, self-administered at home lab tests, virtual house calls.” As Rite Aid continues to break down barriers to accessing patient care, they could be designing the future of medical care by taking by merging it with commerce.
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