Putting docs in Duane Reade pays off

Putting its doctors to work next to the shampoo and toothpaste aisles in a chain of New York City drugstores is paying off for a big Manhattan hospital system. Continuum Health Partners' two-year-old arrangement to place its physicians in walk-in medical clinics at Duane Reade pharmacies has done even better than the health system hoped.

In a trend that continues to grow nationally, New York City's Duane Reade drugstores have set up medical clinics where people can seek care without an appointment. Nationally, most of these retail facilities have no hospital affiliation. In New York, however, Duane Reade has enlisted Continuum—the parent company for Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, both in Manhattan—as its affiliate. The hospital system has worked out an arrangement to see that patients are offered follow-up at its own facilities. [...Read more on Crain's Site ]