Steve
04-25-2006, 09:56 PM
If one company has the mindset to change it and the pocketbooks to implement it, it's Wal-mart.
I think this is going to be big! What's your view?
CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/31/news/companies/walmart_f500_fortune_041706/index.htm) - When Wal-Mart announced recently that it would open medical clinics in supercenters across the country, the news coverage went something like this: Get ready for a battle of the titans. America's most admired, most vilified, most shopped-at retailer is finally taking on the $2-trillion-a-year U.S. health-care market, a hulking giant just begging to be whipped into shape by Wal-Mart's vaunted efficiency and everyday low pricing. It's Ali vs. Foreman, Mothra meets Godzilla, right?
"The initial results on this launch were as good as any test we've done recently. We were seeing satisfaction rates over 90 percent," says Glenn Habern, Wal-Mart's senior vice president for new-business development. This being Wal-Mart, the company promptly stepped up the rollout. It had planned to open 12 clinics with four partners by the end of 2006. (The clinics are owned and operated by vendors; Wal-Mart merely leases them its valuable floor space.) In February it pledged to open 50 more by next January.
"It was pretty awesome," according to Dirk Thibodaux, a landscape architect who dropped by the RediClinic in Fayetteville, Ark., with an ear infection a few weeks back. Visiting his regular doctor, he figures, would have involved a midday appointment and a "minimum of two hours." For roughly the same cost as his regular co-payment, says Thibodaux, "I showed up at 7 A.M., got my diagnosis and prescription in 20 minutes, and wasn't even late for work."
I think this is going to be big! What's your view?
CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/31/news/companies/walmart_f500_fortune_041706/index.htm) - When Wal-Mart announced recently that it would open medical clinics in supercenters across the country, the news coverage went something like this: Get ready for a battle of the titans. America's most admired, most vilified, most shopped-at retailer is finally taking on the $2-trillion-a-year U.S. health-care market, a hulking giant just begging to be whipped into shape by Wal-Mart's vaunted efficiency and everyday low pricing. It's Ali vs. Foreman, Mothra meets Godzilla, right?
"The initial results on this launch were as good as any test we've done recently. We were seeing satisfaction rates over 90 percent," says Glenn Habern, Wal-Mart's senior vice president for new-business development. This being Wal-Mart, the company promptly stepped up the rollout. It had planned to open 12 clinics with four partners by the end of 2006. (The clinics are owned and operated by vendors; Wal-Mart merely leases them its valuable floor space.) In February it pledged to open 50 more by next January.
"It was pretty awesome," according to Dirk Thibodaux, a landscape architect who dropped by the RediClinic in Fayetteville, Ark., with an ear infection a few weeks back. Visiting his regular doctor, he figures, would have involved a midday appointment and a "minimum of two hours." For roughly the same cost as his regular co-payment, says Thibodaux, "I showed up at 7 A.M., got my diagnosis and prescription in 20 minutes, and wasn't even late for work."