Walmart is planning to open four healthcare centers in the Houston area this month followed by four more in the summer and fall, the Houston Chronicle reported April 2.
The new clinics are part of the retail giant's plans to have over 75 Walmart Health Centers by early 2025. The roughly 6,000-square-foot operations combine primary, behavioral and dental care with labs, X-rays and hearing services.
"Even in a crowded place like Houston, where there are lots of healthcare choices, we don't think anyone approaches primary preventive care exactly the way we do," David Carmouche, MD, senior vice president of healthcare delivery for Walmart, told the Chronicle. Dr. Carmouche is one of several former health system executives who have joined Walmart Health.
Walmart has 48 health centers across Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas, with plans for 18 more in Texas and four in Missouri this year and six in Arizona early next year, a spokesperson told Becker's. The Arizona clinics were originally planned for 2024 but were delayed till early 2025 because of "construction resources," while the retailer is pausing plans to build four health centers in Oklahoma. "We're always reviewing current market dynamics in all our locations," the spokesperson said.
Walmart's more deliberate approach to opening clinics differs from some of its retail healthcare competitors, the newspaper reported. Walgreens planned to expand VillageMD to at least 600 locations after investing $5.2 billion in the company in 2021, but has been closing dozens of the primary care clinics this year. CVS has about 1,100 MinuteClinic sites and intends to open dozens of Oak Street Health locations after acquiring that company for $10.6 billion.
"I think what we've recognized from the beginning is it's hard," Dr. Carmouche told the news outlet. "We'd rather be a little bit more pragmatic, learn, develop something that works, and then once we have that, then scale it."