Walmart Health may have an advantage over other retail healthcare clinics because the big-box store has so many other products available to patients, Arkansas Business reported.
Walmart Health "is primary care for people with no serious illnesses who are on the way to picking up the African violet in the garden center and decide to drop by about a cough that won’t go away," Mark Pauly, PhD, a health economist at Philadelphia-based Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told the news outlet for the June 19 story.
The retail giant plans to have more than 75 healthcare clinics open by the first quarter of 2024. Walmart also recently upped the pay of pharmacists and opticians to become more competitive in the healthcare arena, as it competes with not only hospitals and health systems but other disruptors such as CVS, Walgreens and Amazon.
At Walmart, patients can also pick up groceries and other household items before or after receiving care, experts told Arkansas Business.
"But there's also other reasons that you would go to a clinic affiliated with a large retailer," Robert Field, PhD, professor of law and public health at Drexel University of Philadelphia, told the news outlet. "It also has a pharmacy and has over-the-counter drugs and all other health-related items you might want."