Forbes reported that Walmart opened its first 10,00 square-foot “Walmart Health” in Dallas, Georgia on Friday, Sept. 13. The center features an array of primary medical services, dental care and behavioral health services as part of a new model expected to eventually be replicated in other markets. “We are creating a super center for basic healthcare services,” Sean Slovenski, senior vice president of Walmart and president of Walmart Health and Wellness, told Forbes.
In July 2018, Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a national poll of 1,200 randomly selected 18- to 29-year-old adults and found that 26 percent said they did not have a primary care provider. “There’s a generational shift,” said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, an internist and associate professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. “These trends are more evident among millennials, but not unique to them. I think people’s expectations have changed. Convenience is prized in almost every aspect of our lives.”
Millennials are turning to a fast-growing constellation of alternatives: retail clinics carved out of drugstores or big-box retail outlets, free-standing urgent care centers that tout evening and weekend hours and online telemedicine sites that offer virtual visits without having to leave home.
Walmart executives say the new Walmart Health center is different than earlier clinics that take up about 1,500 square feet inside the store, according to the Forbes report. The retailer says the Care Clinics remain an important part of their healthcare offerings but are more limited in service. The health centers are designed to offer more services than the 19 “Care Clinics” Walmart has already operated elsewhere in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.
Resources:
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – July 2018
Forbes: “Walmart’s First Healthcare Services ‘Super Center’ Opens”