Roadside Medical keeps on truckin’

LAS VEGAS —Retail-based clinics increasingly are playing a vital role in today’s healthcare system, helping to serve on the front lines of U.S. health care. However, other branches of convenient care are beginning to have the same kind of effect, among them Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab, which operates a network of retail health clinics for over-the-road professional drivers.

Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab may not be as well known to the pharmacy industry as Walgreens’ Take Care Health Systems or CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic, but that could be changing, as emergency room physician Royce Brough has received licenses for 11 sites throughout six states. The expansion demonstrates where people who pay for their own health care and have access issues (e.g., truckers—many of whom are self-employed, private contractors paying for their own coverage) go when they need care.

Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab has been looking to expand through franchising and licensing opportunities, and now Brough, a practicing emergency room physician with more than 35 years of experience, will be opening a location in Oklahoma City within the next 90 days, followed by a Dallas location in the first quarter of 2010. The remaining sites, set for California, New Mexico, New Jersey and Indiana, will be opened “as quickly as possible.”

“Keeping with our mission to deliver convenient health care to professional drivers coast to coast, we are pleased to be working with Brough to grow a national network of velocity through franchising and licensing,” stated Bob Perry, president of Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab and vice chair of the American Transportation Association Safety Management Council’s Health and Wellness Working Group.

Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab began offering franchising and licensing opportunities within a limited number of markets in February. Since then, the company has secured sites in Tennessee, Arkansas, Illinois and Georgia.

Through an exclusive partnership with Pilot Travel Centers, the company provides cost-effective, convenient care medical services, including Department of Transportation physicals and compliance, wellness programs, sleep apnea studies and treatment, and nutritional products for drivers. Pilot is the largest operator of truck stops in the United States, with more than 300 locations in 41 states. Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab has planned for a total of 80 sites throughout the United States, located exclusively at Pilot Travel Centers in order to meet the needs of the 4.2 million over-the-road professional drivers.