Walmart Health is expanding into two new states and opening 28 centers in 2024, the retailer announced Thursday.
The company said it will open six centers in the Phoenix metro area and four in metro Kansas City, adding Arizona and Missouri to its footprint. It will also add 10 locations in the Dallas region and eight in metropolitan Houston, totaling more than 75 centers nationwide by the end of 2024.
Walmart Health's centers, which first opened in 2019, provide primary care, dental, behavioral health, audiology, lab, X-ray and telehealth services. They are staffed by doctors, dentists, behavioral health specialists and community health workers.
New centers will start opening in the first quarter of 2024. Walmart said the facilities—each about 5,750 square feet and inside Walmart Supercenters—will have a revised layout less focused on the waiting room and be equipped with technology, such as the Epic electronic health record system, integrated for use across all health center locations.
"As we have from the beginning, we will continue to grow and adapt at a responsible pace to better serve the communities where we live and work. With these new locations, we will bring to life some of the feedback we’ve heard from listening to our patients," Walmart said in a news release.
The retailer estimates 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart location.
Walmart has dabbled in the healthcare space for more than a decade. It is involved in clinical trials, preventative care for employer groups and pharmaceuticals. Last October, Walmart Health announced plans to add 16 new centers in Florida by fall 2023. The company also operates health centers in Arkansas, Georgia and Illinois.
Other large retailers have made recent moves to expand healthcare services. In January, Dollar General launched three mobile healthcare clinics in Tennessee. Also in January, the Kroger Co. said its healthcare division would start recruiting consumers for a clinical trial to help treat colorectal cancer. Last month, CVS Health announced its $10.6 billion acquisition of primary care provider Oak Street Health, with plans to add 130 new Oak Street locations by 2026.
