Walgreens Turning Into Urgent Care Centers?
Walgreens is adding Summit Health, the parent company of CityMD, to its portfolio as it moves to increase its healthcare offerings in its stores.
Walgreens is evolving. It actually has been for the past few years. The pharmacy retailer has been making a big push to bolster the health services that it offers in its stores, now it’s going a step further and expanding its healthcare reach with its newest Summit Health acquisition.
Summit Health is the parent company of CityMD, a well-known urgent care chain in the New York Metropolitan area. Walgreens is acquiring Summit Health through its existing subsidiary VillageMD. The acquisition will give Walgreens increased access to and influence over the healthcare services sector in the US.
Walgreens’ overarching vision is to tie in its retail stores (and the services that those stores offer) with its healthcare facilities. Walgreens CEO Tracey Brown told Fortune that she essentially sees Walgreens stores as a vital supplement to traditional healthcare clinics like CityMD. “There is a need for alternative care settings. I believe that the future of care will actually happen in the likes of Walgreens,” said Brown.
Brown asserted that she doesn’t want Walgreens’ acquisition to compete with retail locations she wants them all to complement each other. For instance, a person can go to Walgreens to have a pharmacist or technician assess a minor ailment or irritation and then offer advice on how to treat it. Brown also highlighted that at its core, Walgreens will still be what it always has been- a place to pick up essentials like mouthwash, milk, and band-aids.
Furthermore, Brown explained to Fortune that what happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic really helped her to outline her future plans for the store. She explained that COVID-19 illustrated a need for quick-access testing facilities. Brown believes that Walgreens did and can continue to fill that gap.
In the years to come Brown wants Walgreens to become the place where one can quickly get tested for illnesses like Strep throat and urinary tract infections. Brown believes that Walgreens is uniquely suited to offering quick testing services such as this. Especially in poorer communities where going to the doctor is not always economically feasible.
Additionally, Brown pointed out how the company boasts upwards of 9,000 locations, with this many stores it’s likely that most people in the nation will have a conveniently located Walgreens. This will serve to further enhance healthcare accessibility and ease existing disparities.
Walgreens is planning on further fleshing out services that they started offering or growing during the height of the pandemic, too. Like many other retailers, the drugstore giant is intending on leveraging curbside pick-up and at-home delivery options more so than in years past. These services are symptomatic of a changing retail environment and the fact that Walgreens is already adapting and integrating them into its business models makes the company better suited to succeed in its other future exploits.
This is because it shows that the drugstore giant understands the shifting retail landscape. Overall, it’s clear that Walgreens, specifically its CEO, has big plans for the chain. It will be interesting to see how those plans take shape as more and more healthcare services are added.
