Hospital Set to Open Retail Clinic in Connecticut Grocery Store
By the end of the summer, Johnson Memorial Hospital (JMH) will open its very first retail clinic at a grocery store located in Stafford Springs, Connecticut.
By the end of the summer, Johnson Memorial Hospital (JMH) will open its very first retail clinic at a grocery store located in Stafford Springs, Connecticut.
The JMH FastCare clinic at the Big Y World Class Market will be staffed by advanced-practice registered nurses who can prescribe medications and provide preventive, acute, and chronic care to patients 18 months or older on a walk-in basis. Other health services that will be offered at the clinic include rapid strep tests, urine pregnancy tests, and tuberculosis skin tests.
Immediate referrals will be made to a physician when symptoms exceed the clinic’s scope of services, and reports are sent to the patient’s primary care physician after each visit. For patients who don’t have a primary care physician, referrals can be made by request.
A visit to JMH FastCare will cost $79, including basic laboratory work, according to a press release from Big Y. FastCare accepts most insurance plans, and a co-pay will apply.
Construction is currently underway at the clinic, which will have a separate entrance adjacent to the supermarket’s main entrance. JMH and Big Y expect the location to open sometime in August 2016.
Hartford-based Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center—which is JMH’s partner under parent company Trinity Health-New England—already has similar retail clinics in Simsbury, Manchester, and Glastonbury, Connecticut.
According to areportby the Convenient Care Association, there are currently more than 100 hospital and health systems affiliated with retail clinics. Those partnerships positively impact patient care by expanding access and the services provided, as well as improving the quality and continuity of health care.
Meanwhile, Big Y is currently partnered with the Western New England University College of Pharmacy in operating a Consultation and Wellness Center that offers pharmacist consultations, as well as blood glucose and blood pressure monitoring.
On a national scale, a November 2015 report from Accentureforecastedthat the number of retail clinics in the United States will surpass 2800 clinics by 2017, significantly up from about 1900 clinics in 2014. MinuteClinic, the fastest-growing provider of retail clinics,expectsto operate 1500 retail clinics alone by 2017.
