H-E-B OPENING HEALTH CLINICS

Christine Blank

HOUSTON -- Clinics in grocery stores may be the next wave in health care, if InterFit Health has its way.

InterFit Health here has opened two of its RediClinic limited-service medical clinics in four H-E-Butt Grocery Co. stores in Houston, and will open another H-E-B unit in Houston this month.

Two additional grocery chains will be adding RediClinics in the near future, but Web Golinkin, chief executive officer of InterFit Health, declined to name them.

Other chains offering similar services include Target Corp., Minneapolis, Cub Foods stores of Supervalu, Eden Prairie, Minn., and CVS Corp., Woonsocket, R.I., which have Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic units in some of their stores.

In addition, Rite Aid Corp., Camp Hill, Pa., plans to open Take Care Health Centers -- limited-service clinics staffed by certified nurse practitioners -- in 10 of its Portland, Ore., stores this year.

The H-E-B RediClinic locations -- about 500 square feet with two examination rooms and a waiting area -- also are staffed by nurse practitioners, who can treat and prescribe ailments, and usually work in partnership with patients' doctors. In H-E-B's case, the nurse practitioners work with doctors from the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston.

The locations are for patients with minor ailments, such as sore throats, or those who need physicals, routine medical screenings and flu shots.

Doctors are at the clinics about 20% of the time, Golinkin said, and the nurse practitioners consult with Memorial Hermann doctors when needed. In addition, Redi-Clinic mails patients' records to their primary physicians when the patients consent to have them sent.

The clinics' benefits to patients are convenience and cost, Golinkin said. "We appeal to two slightly different shoppers: One is the woman pressed for time, who needs to get it done, and doesn't have time to make an appointment; and to someone who may not have insurance," he said.

In addition, supermarket shoppers can "kill two birds with one stone," Golinkin said. "They can get medical care while they shop." For convenience, the H-E-B RediClinic locations are at the front of the stores, alongside pharmacies.

Supermarkets' move towards offering these clinics is in line with the steadily increasing trend in recent years for Americans to take their health into their own hands, said Jim Wisner, president of Wisner Marketing Group, Libertyville, Ill. He refers to it as the "self care phenomenon."

"It makes so much sense from a patient standpoint and a cost standpoint. For people who don't have regular insurance, it saves money on things like blood screenings, instead of seeing a doctor," Wisner said.

The H-E-B RediClinic locations have the ability to treat 60 to 70 patients a day, with each visit taking about 15 minutes, but Golinkin acknowledged, "it's going to take awhile to work up to that."