Walgreens has followed the lead of its chief rival, CVS, and bought an in-store health clinic operator of its own.
According to Reuters, U.S. antitrust regulators have given approval for Walgreens to acquire Take Care Health Systems and the 50 clinics it operates in Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.
With the acquisition, Walgreens has its sites set on having more than 400 clinics operating in its stores by the end of 2008. The drugstore chain currently has 59 in-store clinics with most of those operated by Take Care Health Systems under the Health Corner banner. RediClinic and EasyCare also operate clinics in Walgreens stores in Atlanta and Las Vegas. It is expected that Take Care will eventually open its own clinics in those locations.
Discussion Questions: What is your reaction to the news that Walgreens will purchase Take Care Health System? With CVS and now Walgreens purchasing in-store clinic companies, do you expect others such as Wal-Mart to do the same or is the smart move to continue leasing space to various clinic operators?