Retail Clinics Are Having a Hard Time Bouncing Back—with Some Going Virtual

JUCM News readers know the urgent care industry took a pretty big hit in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re starting to come back strong, but retail clinics are having a harder time rebounding. RediClinic just announced it will close all 36 of its locations in Texas, in favor of expanding its telemedicine offerings for patients—for which they’re aligning with Rite Aid Virtual Care. Most of those locations were associated with H-E-B food stores and the Memorial Hermann hospital system. The pandemic-caused disruption exposes a key vulnerability of the retail health model in that, without the ability to perform x-rays and the level of procedures available in an urgent care center, much of what they offer can be accomplished virtually at a lower cost.