WOONSOCKET, R.I. - MinuteClinic, the retail medical clinic of CVS Health, on Monday opened its first locations inside Target stores in the Chicago area. The clinics located in 13 stores have been rebranded and converted to MinuteClinic.
There are now 56 MinuteClinic locations in Chicagoland, including clinics in CVS Pharmacy stores. Chicago is MinuteClinic's largest metropolitan market in the United States.
"The new MinuteClinic locations inside Target will offer the same scope of services available to patients at all our other clinics in Illinois and nationwide," stated Andrew Sussman, president of CVS MinuteClinic, and EVP and associate chief medical officer of CVS Health. "In addition, some services will be new to Target guests, including treatment for minor sprains and strains, contraceptive care, smoking cessation counseling and weight loss assessment and coaching."
With the new MinuteClinic in Target locations, Sussman says MinuteClinic can continue to play a complementary role in working with primary care providers.
MinuteClinic locations in Chicagoland are affiliated with Rush University Medical Center and University of Chicago Medical Center.
"About 50% of MinuteClinic visits occur on evenings, weekends and holidays when patients may not be able to get an appointment with their primary care provider and otherwise may need to choose more expensive emergency department or urgent care options," he said. "Also, approximately half of the patients seen at MinuteClinic are 'medically homeless' and do not have a personal physician."
In December 2015, CVS Health acquired all Target pharmacies (1,672 locations across 47 states) and retail clinics (79 locations in seven states). Target-based pharmacy locations are being rebranded CVS Pharmacy over the next several months and will operate through a store-within-a-store format. Target clinic locations are being rebranded as MinuteClinic over the next few months as well.