Can Traditional Health Care Hold Off the Retail Invasion?

// By Jim Samuel //

We’ve all been expecting it, but now that Walmart, CVS, Amazon, Walgreens, and others are upping their games, the question is more important than ever. Can traditional primary care and health systems survive the retail health onslaught, and what do they need to do to maintain market share and thrive?

“Disrupt or be disrupted.”

That’s the advice Shari Campbell gave to anyone in traditional health care who is concerned about losing market share to retail health care stores as Walmart, Amazon, CVS, and others move into the business.

Shari Campbell, marketing director, retail health, MultiCare Health System

Campbell, marketing director, retail health at MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Washington, made her remarks during a recent webinar hosted by the Forum for Healthcare Strategists and SymphonyRM. The webinar, “The Impact of Retail Disruptors on the Healthcare Consumer Experience,” covered the ways that non-health care businesses are moving into health care, and what traditional health systems and providers can do to fight back.

Campbell says MultiCare Health began to disrupt itself about five-and-a-half years ago when the then-CEO saw the coming trends in primary care and decided the health system had to be at the forefront of retail health care or risk losing market share. That’s when the regional health system based in Tacoma launched a retail health division called Indigo Urgent Care.

Log in below to access this content: