Friday, February 3, 2012

Location, Location, Location

The oft-repeated real estate motto – Location, Location, Location – has never been more relevant to the health and human service field. Consumers are driving care more than ever before and what they are looking for is convenience, in a variety of forms (see The Marketing Challenge Of The 5% & The 95% all members). And, location is a key element of the consumer preference for convenience.

Location is important for the one-stop-shopping, easy access phenomenon. And, we see a marked change in thinking about where services should be delivered (see Healthcare Trends in America: Changing Care Delivery Models premium members). Have you noticed walk-in clinics in your local pharmacy? Did you purchase your last set of contact lens form Walmart’s Vision Center? Retail clinics are popping up in the places you shop and work, with 6.5 of every 1,000 health care service visits being made to retail clinics in 2009. This marks a huge increase from 0.6 visits per 1,000 visits in 2007 (see Use of Retail Clinic by Commercially Insured Increases 10X in Two Years premium members).

And retail companies are positioning to take advantage of this new trend. New entrants from the supermarket industry (like Safeway) are expanding their health care clinics, Walmart is actively seeking proposals from established medical care companies, major office complexes are renting space to medical clinics, and in some areas new business partnerships are starting to form. CVS Caremark’s Minute Clinic has already developed partnerships with at least six major health care systems, including Cleveland Clinic and Henry Ford Health System, and Walgreens has a partnership with Ochsner Health System in New Orleans.

Securing these retail spaces for clinics has begun to speed up for a couple reasons. First off, physician resistance has eased. Secondly, the baby boomer generation is creating more demand for health care services (see United States Senior Population to Double in 25 Years premium members); they are spending more on these services; and they want services that are convenient (see The New Health Care Market: Consumers Spend More & Consumers Want More premium members). The kind of convenience offered by retail clinics—open on weekends and evenings—may help to stop patients from relying on the emergency room as an after-hours clinic and will most-likely pull patients away from traditional provider offices.

The only question then is – how do you position your organization to serve the needs of this population in a new convenience-driven market? If you would like to share your experiences with retail clinics in your area, e-mail us at openminds@openminds.com. We always love to hear about your experiences out in the field.

Sincerely,
Kitley Rainwater
Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

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