Content about Retail Clinician

Rather than take off for Christmas, the editors of Drug Store News took a look at the year ahead and the stories, issues and trends that will make headlines in retail pharmacy in 2012.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. and CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic has entered a clinical affiliation with Carolinas HealthCare System, which provides medical services at more than 650 care locations in North and South Carolina. The collaboration includes 16 MinuteClinic locations in the greater Charlotte area.

This marks the first such arrangement in North Carolina for the two organizations.

PHILADELPHIA — Bellin Health Care Systems, which established the FastCare brand of retail health clinics in 2006, is celebrating on Dec. 14 the opening of the new Einstein FastCare clinic in the ShopRite of Cheltenham, owned by Brown’s Super Stores.

Leaders of the convenient care industry and dignitaries representing the City of Philadelphia and the Cheltenham Township will convene to celebrate the opening.

Since the inception of retail-based health clinics in 2000, the concept has grown to more than 1,300 locations throughout the United States and, in more recent months, has celebrated several significant milestones that prove clinics are not only an integral part of the U.S. healthcare system but also are a viable model for retailers when handled correctly. The real question now: Are we on the brink of clinics version 2.0?


DEERFIELD, Ill. — In an effort to emphasize the importance of being protected against the flu, Illinois governor Pat Quinn visited a Chicago Walgreens to receive his seasonal flu shot.

Walgreens, which announced earlier this week that it was teaming up with the Department of Health and Human Services to provide flu shot vouchers to uninsured Americans, offers flu shots at its pharmacies at Take Care Clinics daily, with no appointment necessary.

Quinn received his flu shot Friday at Walgreens on 933 N. State St. in Chicago.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Wednesday announced it is offering more than $10 million worth of free flu shot vouchers to Americans without health insurance coverage. The Department of Health and Human Services is assisting in the distribution of the vouchers in markets across the country.

ATLANTA — Many elderly patients put themselves at risk for emergency hospitalization due to adverse drug events, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Perrigo on Monday announced that it received final approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its store-brand version of Mucinex tablets.

Perrigo is still in litigation with Reckitt Benckiser involving the introduction of a private-label Mucinex. "Perrigo is working through the litigation and expects to begin shipping this product in our retail and wholesale customers' store brand packaging in the second half of our fiscal year," Perrigo chairman and CEO Joseph Papa said.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug for insomnia in which patients wake in the middle of the night and have trouble returning to sleep.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — An online data sharing platform announced it will debut a daily blood-glucose monitoring feature for its more than 2,000 diabetes patients.

PatientsLikeMe said patients will be able to report daily glucose levels, as well as continue sharing and learning from HbA1C scores, treatments and dosages, in addition to symptoms and severity.

The feature will be launched in early December, PatientsLikeMe said.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — PharmaCline has launched a topical antibiotic for prediabetes and diabetes patients that is designed to treat minor cuts, scrapes and burns.

Diabecline, the company said, is an over-the-counter antibiotic that targets the source of infection through site-specific penetration technology.

"Our Diabecline antibiotic allows users who are at greater risk of developing serious infections to achieve better care," PharmaCline CEO Steve Keough said.

NEW YORK — A test commonly used to identify patients with diabetes or those at risk of developing the condition may not produce accurate results among children, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.

The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Diabetes Care, tested 254 overweight children using both fasting and nonfasting methods. Researchers found that the recommended test, hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), missed more cases of prediabetes or diabetes, compared with other tests.