LabCorp launches retail-based testing

Welcome to the next phase of retail health. Not to be outdone by the MinuteClinics of the world, medical testing company Lab Corporation of America has announced plans to establish service centers in 20 Duane Reade drugstores in New York City. The new outlets will collect blood and urine specimens, then route the samples to off-site labs for testing. LabCorp currently operates 1,300 of its own patient service centers, as well as servicing a much-larger group of physician offices and hospitals.

This is the first time that LabCorp has tried the drugstore-based approach, though company officials say they hope to expand the program with Duane Reade or other partners. One way for them to do so may be to branch out to other Duane Reade stores, as the chain operates 250 drugstores across the United States, notes The News & Observer.

In some ways, this approach has more upside the retail medical clinic model. Retail clinics have stumbled at times in building relationships with patients' primary care docs and finding supervising physicians to review patient care. But laboratory testing is a one-shot deal, much more closely resembling the typical retail transaction than getting a cold treated at a Wal-Mart. Look for the number of retail-based testing centers to mushroom in coming months.

To learn more about LabCorp's deal:
- read this article in The News & Observer
- check out the Duane Reade release (.pdf)