The Kennebec Journal

July 31

Health care center opens in Waterville Walmart

By Scott Monroe smonroe@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

WATERVILLE -- Starting today, you can add basic health care to the roster of what's inside the city's Walmart Supercenter, off Waterville Commons Drive.

The Clinic at Walmart -- provided by Inland Hospital in Waterville and open seven days a week -- offers check-ups, immunizations and screenings for minor illnesses. It's tucked into a 550-square-foot space at the store's front end, alongside a Dunkin' Donuts, salon and spa, credit union, vision center and photo laboratory.

Walmart has been adding health clinics to its stores the last a couple years as part of its drive for "one-stop shopping."

The trend of retail clinics at Walmart and other stores seems to becoming more common, said Deborah Halbach, executive director of the Maine Academy of Family Physicians, which has about 500 members who are family medicine specialists.

"The retail clinic trend has been around for about two years, and I've heard it from other chapters of the academy, but it just now seems to be coming to Maine," Halbach said.

Customers leaving the Walmart on Friday afternoon offered mixed responses about the walk-in clinic, which accepts accept cash, credit cards and some insurances. Some customers said they already had primary-care physicians and weren't interested, while others said they planned to use the clinic.

"I think it'll be a great service for a lot of the lower-income shoppers who come here," said Melissa Bouchard, of Waterville, who is also a store employee and was shopping with her mother, Christine Doucette.

Doucette said she doesn't have health insurance and would consider using the clinic. "It'd probably be quicker than the hospital," she said.

Elaine Burnham, of Clinton, said cash-strapped people are probably in need of a cheaper alternative: "I would use it if I couldn't get in at the doctor's."

Including the Waterville clinic, there are now 97 in-store clinics at Walmarts in 21 states, according to the company.

The Maine Medical Association is generally supportive of such walk-in clinics -- if they're run properly -- because "competition is good and it's important that patients have an opportunity to find medical care at times and places that are convenient for them," said Gordon Smith, executive vice president of the association. Such clinics also may help amid a shortage of primary-care doctors, he said.

Still, Smith said, the handful of other fledgling clinics that have opened in Maine recently haven't been very successful financially.

"There's not a lot of money to be made in heath care in Maine," Smith said. "So many patients are on Medicare, Medicaid or are uninsured. It's a difficult demographic. We struggle up here to provide primary care as it is, and most people don't see it as a business opportunity."

Smith also said clinics such as the Waterville Walmart's are no different than existing doctor's offices, because they're run by a health-care providers, not Walmart.

It's the first such retail clinic for Inland Hospital, but the hospital's parent company, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, has opened retail clinics this year in Bangor, Brewer and Presque Isle.

The Waterville Walmart clinic has two examination rooms and will have at least two staff workers there during business hours, including one nurse practitioner; and Inland Hospital hired two new nurse practitioners to handle most of the patients, according to John Dalton, Inland's president and chief executive officer.

Dalton said the clinic is best suited to treat common ailments such as sinus infections, earaches, bladder infections, poison ivy, sunburns and vaccinations.

Inland should break even financially after about a year of operating the clinic, Dalton said.

"Our clinic is staffed with experienced, caring nurse practitioners, even on nights and weekends, so families can receive quality care for non-urgent, basic medical needs without a long wait," Dalton said. "The clinic can also help ease the burden on emergency rooms, which aren't intended to treat everyday illnesses like sore throats."

According to the clinic's rate card, services include $14 for a pregnancy test, $29 for a flu vaccine, and $49 for treatment of a sinus infection or physical examination. The most expensive services cost $69, for treatment of urinary tract and bladder infections and ear wax removal.

Its hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The clinic can be reached at 680-2110.

Scott Monroe -- 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com