I’ve written before about Walgreens’ great new stores, and it sounds like one that’s coming to Baltimore will be even better than usual thanks to a partnership with Johns Hopkins:
It also will be the first Walgreens in Maryland with a clinic staffed by nurse practitioners, collaborating with Hopkins primary care physicians, who will be available for urgent, non-emergency care. Walgreens has clinics in more than 370 stores in 20 states, said Jim Cohn, a spokesman for the Deerfield, Ill.-based retailer.
“We’ll have the ability to influence what are the key programs being offered” at the East Baltimore store, Shaver said.
Both the larger selection of healthy food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, salads, sandwiches and prepared meals, and extended, night-and-weekend hours for the clinic were requested by Hopkins, he said, to accommodate the community. East Baltimore has limited options for groceries and the large population of students near Johns Hopkins Hospital will benefit from longer hours, he said.
Beyond providing services tailored to the neighborhoods surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital, Walgreens and Hopkins expect the pharmacy will be a place to develop and examine new health care programs.
Particularly with the Internet reducing demand for traditional brick-and-mortar retail functions, there’s a real economic need on both sides of the divide to find ways to integrate health care delivery with the convenience that we’ve come to expect from the retailing sector. Good for Hopkins for rolling up its sleeves and trying to see what they can accomplish here.
