Wal-Mart expanding in-store health clinics

"Wal-Mart Stores will open its first in-store medical clinics under its own brand name after leasing space in dozens of stores to outside companies that operate the quick-service health stops." (Source: "Wal-Mart expands in-store health clinics," USA Today, Feb. 7, 2008.) "The world's largest retailer said Thursday it will open The Clinic at Wal-Mart as a joint venture with local hospital systems in Atlanta, Dallas and Little Rock, starting in April." Wal-Mart expects to soon open cobranded walk-in clinics in 200 Wal-Mart Supercenters, with 400 total clinics in stores by 2010. The retail giant is among a number of supermarket and drugstore chains that "have begun opening store-based health clinics, which are staffed mostly by nurse practitioners or physician assistants and offer quick service for routine conditions from colds and bladder infections to sunburn. About 7% of Americans have tried a clinic at least once, according to an estimate by the Convenient Care Association, an industry trade group formed in 2006." Other chain stores opening health clinics include CVS, Target, and Walgreen.