The rapid rise of retail giants like Walmart, CVS and Amazon in the healthcare sector once seemed likely to revolutionise primary care. Promising accessible, cost-effective healthcare, these companies brought the convenience of retail into medical services, sparking excitement and industry speculation. However, recent trends reveal that retail healthcare faces significant challenges in establishing a sustainable model in the complex healthcare landscape. While retail clinics initially generated enthusiasm for their potential to deliver convenient care, evidence increasingly shows that traditional health systems remain essential for comprehensive, quality care. The future of healthcare, it appears, lies not in retail’s episodic approach but in the enduring value of continuity and relationship-building provided by hospital and health system settings.
Retail Failures in Healthcare
Retail healthcare seemed well-suited to deliver accessible and affordable primary care, but recent actions by major players suggest otherwise. The failure of Walmart, Walgreens and other retail brands to truly integrate healthcare as a core business highlights inherent flaws in the retail model for medical care. Walmart’s recent closure of all 51 health centres and Walgreens’ announcement of 1,200 store closures by 2027 exemplify the unsustainability of their healthcare ventures. These companies entered healthcare as a supplementary business, a side project rather than a primary focus, treating it more as a loss leader to drive traffic for other products than as a mission-driven, patient-centred service. This marginalised status limited their ability to invest in necessary clinical infrastructure and innovative capabilities, making it difficult to provide care comparable to traditional healthcare providers.
Furthermore, retail clinics predominantly operated in urban centres, limiting access for rural and suburban populations, where primary care shortages are most pronounced. The retail model’s geographical and digital limitations meant it could not effectively serve diverse populations. Retailers largely focused on transactional care, delivering efficient but episodic services that lacked continuity. Without a more diverse strategy that included expanding to underserved areas or collaborating with established health networks, retail clinics remained isolated in their reach, impacting only a fraction of the patients who needed continuous, long-term care.
Amazon’s Healthcare Strategy: Different Path, Similar Challenges
Amazon took a unique approach to healthcare, focusing on virtual care, chronic disease management and prescription delivery. With its technological capabilities, Amazon aimed to address chronic conditions by scaling virtual care, creating a promising model to manage ongoing health needs through telemedicine and logistical efficiency. However, despite these strategic differences, Amazon’s healthcare initiatives have faced similar obstacles to those of its brick-and-mortar retail counterparts.
Amazon’s attempts to improve chronic care management have shown promise, but the company has struggled to build patient-provider relationships critical for effective healthcare delivery. With their established infrastructures and focus on continuity, health systems are better equipped to manage patients’ chronic and complex health needs. Amazon’s model primarily provides transactional care, which is convenient but limited in depth. This approach lacks the continuity necessary for effective long-term health management, a gap that traditional health systems are well-prepared to fill. By focusing on episodic rather than comprehensive care, Amazon’s healthcare model has so far lacked the relational aspects needed to drive significant improvements in patient outcomes.
Why Health Systems Excel in Patient-Centric Care
Hospitals and health systems offer unique benefits that retail clinics struggle to replicate, notably continuous care, relationship-based service and coordinated healthcare management. Traditional health systems cultivate long-term relationships between patients and providers, critical for delivering quality primary and complex care. Unlike retail clinics, which operate on a more segmented model, health systems integrate various specialities, maintain patient histories and provide cohesive care plans to address a patient’s full health needs. This continuity is vital, allowing providers to understand patients on a deeper level and offer timely, targeted interventions for complex and chronic conditions.
Moreover, health systems are uniquely equipped for coordinated care, ensuring patients access specialists at appropriate stages of treatment and supporting a holistic approach to health management. By operating with an integrated care model, health systems can seamlessly transition patients through different levels of care based on their health needs, providing a level of support that retail clinics cannot match. The demand for comprehensive care is growing, especially as chronic diseases become more prevalent and patients seek health solutions beyond simple, one-time visits. Retail healthcare's fragmented, episodic nature does not meet these expectations, while health systems are inherently structured to manage a continuum of care that aligns with patient needs.
The entry of retail giants into healthcare introduced valuable lessons about the importance of convenience, digital innovation and consumer-focused experiences. However, retail healthcare's shortcomings also offer critical insights into what does not work in healthcare delivery. Effective healthcare is more than a transactional experience; it requires strong relationships, continuity and coordination to address complex health issues comprehensively. Retail healthcare’s convenience-driven model lacks the depth and infrastructure necessary to provide holistic care.
For retail players to make a meaningful impact, they would need to commit to healthcare as a core business, expand into underserved areas and partner with established health providers to enhance their capabilities. Otherwise, retail healthcare will likely remain limited in scope and unable to drive systemic change in healthcare delivery. Health systems, with their mission-driven focus, comprehensive service offerings and patient-centred approach, are better equipped to lead the future of healthcare. While retail has brought innovation to the sector, traditional health systems hold the foundation for sustainable, high-quality healthcare for all.
Source: MedCity News
Image Credit: iStock
