Wuesthoff opens first of five Fla. health clinics

The first of five facilities to be known as The Clinic at Wal-Mart and owned and operated by the two-hospital, Rockledge, Fla.-based Wuesthoff Health System has opened in the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Merritt Island, Fla.

It is reported to be the 50th in-store electronic-health-record-equipped clinic to open at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in 14 states. Along with the Merritt Island store, there are four others in Brevard County, which is considered a "sister market" to Orlando, and Wuesthoff spokeswoman Lisa Crites said her organization plans to open a clinic in each one of the five Brevard County, Fla., supercenters—located in Cocoa, Melbourne, Merrit Island, Palm Bay and Titusville—over the next two years.

"The numbers were there," Crites said in explaining why Wuesthoff chose to go with Wal-Mart as opposed to one of its competitors. She said four of the stores have 3 million visitors a year, while its Palm Bay facility attracts 5 million shoppers annually.

Crites said Wuesthoff approached Wal-Mart in the fall of 2005 after the first Wal-Mart retail clinic opened. Representatives then visited Wal-Mart's Arkansas headquarters in the fall of 2007, and finally opened its first store this month.

"It's taken us 14 months to finalize all the legalities," Crites said. "But they are still in an evolution process with these clinics."

The clinics will be equipped with electronic health records that will be connected to the rest of the Wuesthoff system.

"All five clinics will have the eClinicalWorks EHR," Crites said. "Wuesthoff Health System medical centers—along with all our ancillary offices—they all have eClinicalWorks and they will all interface."

It has been projected that 22 million patients will visit Wal-Mart's retail-based, EHR-using clinics by 2014, making them a major force in healthcare IT.

A representative from Wal-Mart was unable to say whether those projections were still achievable or needed to be revised.

In February 2008, it was announced that an EHR-using clinic owned and operated by St. Vincent Health System would be opening shortly at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Little Rock, Ark., but that clinic didn't open until last month. According to a news release, it was the first retail clinic for Catholic Health Initiatives, parent of St. Vincent Health System.

The clinics are not meant to provide emergency care, but they offer treatment for acne, bladder infections, ear aches, flu, insect bites and stings, minor wounds, sinus infections, upper respiratory infections and wart removal. They also provide blood-sugar testing, camp and school physicals, and common vaccinations.

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