Clinics in retail stores bring controversy

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - After three months of feeling lethargic with bouts of blurred vision, 65-year-old Jim Einsweiler walked into a clinic in his local Walgreens pharmacy, mostly, he said, to appease his wife.

Hours later, he was in a cardiac care unit at a nearby hospital. He stayed for eight days and received three stents to prop open his arteries. "I was a walking time bomb," he said.

The Take Care Health Clinic he visited in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, one of 21 in the Chicago area, is part of a major push by retailers like Walgreen Co, CVS Caremark, Target Corp and Wal-Mart Stores Inc to add basic health services to their stores. They plan 700 U.S. clinics by year-end and as many as 2,000 by 2008.

While Einsweiler's story ended well, doctors groups are wary of the clinics, saying their reliance on family nurse practitioners could threaten patient safety and come between doctors and their patients.

And the American Medical Association passed a resolution in June asking state and federal authorities to investigate whether there was a conflict of interest in drug-store chains that both write and fill prescriptions.

Michael Howe, chief executive of MinuteClinic, which runs clinics in CVS stores, said many of the concerns will die down as doctors become more acquainted with the clinic concept. He rejected conflict-of-interest concerns.

"We make it very clear to the patients they have a right to go where they want," he said.

Acquired by CVS last year, MinuteClinic expects to have 400 locations by year end and ultimately as many as 2,500 locations.