CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart are all experimenting with new and innovative ways to capture a larger share of the primary healthcare business. In my opinion, they are generally succeeding whereas the health systems seem to be unable or unwilling to compete for this same business. The latest news about this topic is that CVS is prototyping their so-called HealthHUBs in Houston (see: CVS Health shows off new HealthHUB store design. Makeover includes dietitians, wellness rooms for yoga). Below are details excerpted from the article:
CVS Health has unveiled its new health-focused concept store that's designed to help the pharmacy chain become more of a health-care provider than a place to pick up prescriptions and greeting cards. The three new pilot stores in Houston have been redesigned with much more space devoted to services to help customers manage chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension and asthma. Called HealthHUBs, they are part of the company's vision for its $70 billion acquisition of health insurer Aetna. In addition to the pharmacy, each store has an expanded health clinic, with a lab for blood testing and health screenings. There are also wellness rooms for yoga and seminars, dietitians and respiratory specialists in the HealthHUBs....As part of the [Aetna] acquisition, which closed in November, CVS promised to transform its stores and make customers healthier and to lower health-care costs. As an insurer, CVS wants its patients to be healthier — and less expensive to insure. Its drugstores provide an ideal location, especially as its retail space becomes less profitable....
CVS and rival Walgreens are trying to build their pharmacies into health-care destinations that can draw people in no matter what they're buying on the internet. E-commerce giant Amazon bought its way into prescription drug delivery last year when it bought PillPack, perhaps further pressuring drugstores. CVS is trying to leverage its ability to provide hands-on help with a new "care concierge" in the store who helps guide customers through the new health services and provides more care coordination between the pharmacy, the clinic and the other services.....People can check their blood pressure, weight and body mass index at a kiosk inside the store. They can also consult with a dietitian, who can connect them to Noom, an online weight-loss service....Patients who are discharged from the hospital can also come into the stores and have the pharmacist review the medications they were taking beforehand, as well as the ones they were prescribed in the hospital.
This initiative by CVS seems to me to be a very clever and appropriate way to rethink primary care delivery. Two phrases used by CVS in connection with their HealthHUB initiative have caught my attention: health destination and care concierge. This emphasis on wellness, reinforced by the CVS purchase of Aetna, also makes sense. These CVS health hubs will definitely be performing more on-site lab testing and certainly functioning as patient service centers to collect blood specimens for the national reference labs (see: Retail Drug Stores Emerging as Healthcare Hubs for First-Tier Primary Care). Given that CVS obviously intends to emphasize the role and professional capabilities of pharmacists, it's also so surprise that the company is offering pharmacist review of a customer's current medications which can sometimes be neglected in hospital settings. Drug-drug interactions can cause significant complications for patients (see: Drug Interaction Checker).
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