Advocate Health Care will close all 47 of its Illinois urgent care centers that operate inside Walgreens retail pharmacy stores as well as several in Wisconsin, according to a statement from Advocate Health Care as reported by NBC. Company leaders made the decision to instead focus on virtual care and urgent care in other community locations. The clinics will close next week. Advocate—the largest health system in Illinois and the 3rd largest nonprofit system in the country—is working on a $1 billion project that will include 10 new Neighborhood Care locations inside churches and community centers. This is yet another huge blow for Walgreens Boots Alliance, which has struggled to right the ship in the face of dwindling profits. Its aim to sell the business to private equity firm Sycamore Partners—a plan launched in late December 2024—eventually sank. Walgreens is also on-course to close as many as 1,200 underperforming stores by 2027. According to National UC Realty data, as of January 1, 2025, Walgreens operated 153 clinics in conjunction with health systems, including the 55 with Advocate Health mentioned here.
Incremental shifts: “This is yet another iteration of Walgreens’ clinic strategy,” says Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM. “The first iteration was where Walgreens opened and operated the clinics. The second iteration was where health systems took over many of those clinics in local markets, operating them under their own name. The third iteration was VillageMD primary care services, which has also significantly downsized.”