Thinking Retail . . .

Once upon a time, I used to call my doctor’s office to make an appointment for the annual flu shot. It was always scheduled at a time more convenient for the office staff than for me (“We do shots between 10 am and 2 pm, but we’re closed from 12 to 1 for lunch.”) and even then, a 25 to 45 minute wait wasn’t unusual.

Personally, I can’t remember the last time I had a flu shot at a doctor’s office. Last year, it was done while traveling between the B & C concourses at the Charlotte Airport in North Carolina – 5 minutes, $35 and a record of the event sent to my email before I boarded the plane. My husband and I had H1N1 injections administered by a pharmacist at RiteAid on a Sunday afternoon. No appointment, no waiting.

If you haven’t yet noticed, retailers such as CVS and Walgreens are already heavy into flu shot promotion season. Here are a few lessons from the retailing of these preventive injections:

• Price is front and center – you know what you’re going to pay before you walk in the door; price points seem to be hovering in the $30 range
• Convenience is all about the consumer – CVS’s “Flu Shots Your Way” promotes your ability to “click, call or come by”
• Loss leaders drive traffic – one retail pharmacy is giving the flu shot free when you spend $30 on a core set of brand products; could there be some co-marketing spend here as well?
• Keep the paperwork minimal – at the airport kiosk, I checked ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to 5 questions and signed permission to administer
• Customer service, customer service, customer service – no additional explanation needed

All of this customer experience design is there for a $30 flu shot; what might happen if we put the same effort into a $30,000 inpatient procedure?

Marketing Innovations Frame Chief Marketing Officers' 2010 Agenda

2010 marks the beginning of a new decade – one likely to be characterized by significant change and transformation in the health industry. Converging forces of payer reform, industry consolidation, consumerism, and advanced information technologies are challenging the underlying basis for competition.

Economics are front and center, creating a compelling case for the role that marketers must play in an increasingly competitive industry. What an opportune time to establish marketing leadership as a strategy-critical business competency for healthcare organizations.

It’s that opportunity that will frame the Chief Marketing Officers’ Innovator’s Studio agenda in 2010:

• To transform marketing practice to growth-oriented strategic leadership.
• To drive value-innovation across the health system.
• To crusade for customer-centered practices.
• To build powerful, sustainable brands.
• To develop results-oriented marketing capabilities.
• To realize market success.

The year’s first on-site intensive for the Chief Marketing Officer’s Innovator’s Studio is scheduled March 22 & 23, 2010 at the Catalyst Ranch in Chicago. The deep dive topics – Innovations in Service Line Marketing and Thinking Retail– will jump right to the heart of where marketing executives can impact their health systems’ core business and improve competitive performance.

We’ll learn from experts that have achieved dramatic results from integrated approaches to business, brand and marketing strategies for clinical service lines, ambulatory and retail health services. Come prepared to brainstorm new ideas and frame out service line marketing innovations.

For more information about The Innovator’s Studio, contact me by email (kcorrigan@navvisandcompany.com) or call me at 757.640.8515.

Pre-Paid Gift Cards for Urgent Care

Solantic walk-in urgent care, the Jacksonville-based company that introduced the three-day feel better guarantee and a transparent menu board with up-front pricing, recently announced the launch of online ordering for the Solantic Card.

The cash-value card works similarly to a retail gift card, providing consumers a unique and convenient way to pay for services provided at Solantic’s 30 urgent care centers throughout Florida. Cards may be purchased in increments of $25 up to $500, and redeemed for urgent care and wellness services provided at Solantic locations. Cards also are available for purchase in Solantic centers.

The Solantic Card was created as a solution for those seeking to supplement high-deductible health insurance plans, to cover co-pays, for the self-employed, and for wellness services. It also provides an attractive option for employers who don’t provide traditional health benefits, but are looking for alternatives ways to provide medical coverage.

Just like Starbucks, card balances can be checked online and additional value can be added to the card at any time. Solantic’s prices are also posted online and in the clinic. A basic visit (defined as a minimally complicated medical condition requiring minor treatment) is $89.

Since its founding in 2001, Solantic has been a leader in applying retail concepts to the practice of urgent care medicine. The company displays wait times on queue monitors, offers online registration, and a guarantee on its services—if you don’t feel better, return to Solantic and be treated for free. They currently operate 30 centers across the state of Florida.

Report Projects Moderate Growth in Retail Clinics

Despite the recession, overall growth of the heathcare retail clinic market has increased approximately 15 percent in the past two years, according to a new report released today by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Retail clinic market growth, however, will likely slow to 10-15 percent from 2010 through 2012 and will accelerate above 30 percent from 2013-2014, according to the report.

Retail Clinics:Update and Implications suggests that four factors will likely contribute to the sector’s growth:

• Increased use and satisfaction by consumers
• Increased use and acceptance by commercial health plans and large employers
• Increased services provided through the retail medicine model
• Increased demand for preventive and primary health care services as a result of health reform and consumer demand

According to the report and Deloitte’s 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers, 33 percent of consumers indicate they are willing to use a retail clinic, especially younger and middle-aged working adults. Moreover, 30 percent of respondents are likely to use a retail clinic if it would cost them 50 percent less than seeing their physician. Most retail clinics currently operate in retail pharmacy settings (82 percent), or as a department or wholly owned subsidiary of the host organization, such as a grocery store (12 percent) or big-box discount store (6 percent). Notably, 2009 has seen increased activity by acute care organizations entering retail medicine via contractual arrangements with drug store and grocery chains.

Today, core services at retail clinics typically include preventative health screenings, prescriptions and over the counter (OTC) therapeutics and uncomplicated primary care. However, the retail clinic business model is capable of supporting additional revenue streams (zones) unrelated to its core operations, including medication management, employee wellness, chronic care management and health insurance.

Walgreens Hosting Diabetes Wellness Clinics with Free Testing at In-Store Events Nationwide

Walgreens extends its position as a retail health services provider with free diabetes testing at more than 1,500 locations. The events began last week, Nov. 9-13, and continue Nov. 16-20 at most 24-hour Walgreens stores.

Each of these locations is hosting a six-hour walk-in clinic offering free blood glucose testing, or for individuals diagnosed with diabetes, free A1C testing. Free pharmacist consultations are also available. Walgreens also announced it will donate $1 to the American Diabetes Association for every test performed at its Diabetes Wellness Events, up to $100,000.

Walgreens is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with more than 70,000 providers and fiscal 2009 sales of $63 billion. The company operates 7,045 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens' diversified portfolio includes retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness Division includes Take Care Health Systems, providing worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.'

To find out if there are events in your market, visit www.walgreens.com/diabeteswellness or call 1-877-W-and-You (1-877-926-3968).

Study Concludes Retail Clinics as Good as Doctors' Offices for Routine Care

When it comes to routine illnesses, retail clinics run by CVS, WalMart and others provide care that is as good as and more cost effective than doctors, hospitals and urgent care centers, according to a recently released study by Rand Corporation. Research findings debunked criticisms levied by the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics regarding the quality of care provided by the convenience care retailers, when it found no major differences in key clinical practices such as follow-up or prescribing habits.

What was different? The cost of providing the care was less – in some cases, dramatically so – than for the same services provided in more traditional medical sites.

The study was published in September in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Lessons Docs Could Learn From Retail Clinics

“Fast, convenient flu shots here” read the poster that caught my eye while strolling briskly from the C to B concourses this morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. I needed a flu shot and certainly wanted it fast and convenient given 40 minutes until my next flight.

“I’m here to give you some business,” I said to the nurse manning the kiosk. To which she replied with a smile, “And I’m here to give you great service. I’ll have you out of here in 4 minutes.”

True to her word, I filled out a very short form, handed over my credit card, rolled up the sleeve, winced at the needle stick and walked away in less than 5 minutes. “Thank you and have a nice flight,” she said.

Before I got to the gate, there was an email message on the iPhone thanking me again for my business and providing an electronic notation for inclusion in my medical record. “Please provide this document to your physician to update your medical record regarding the vaccine you have received.”

It’s ironic that the most difficult part of this whole transaction will be figuring out how to forward the note for the medical record on to my primary care physician. I don’t have an email address for the office. In fact I’ve never received an email – or even snail mail for that matter – from my doctor (well, with the exception of the occasional bill). This is the same office where I couldn’t get in for a flu shot because those are only provided two afternoons a week for patients that aren’t being seen for other reasons.

Don’t get me wrong. I do like my doctor, but would love to send him and all his practice staff off to retail boot camp – just until the light bulb comes on about the customer-centered conveniences and courtesies of the retail model. Until then, I’ll be getting more of my routine health care needs met in the retail clinics.