14B — August 31 - September 13, 2012 — Shopping Centers — Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
S HOPPING C ENTERS
By Buck Collins, Bohler Engineering “Retail” Healthcare
Environmental & Geotechnical Engineers & Consultants
W
here we go for our healthcare and how our providers ended
anchor for the community which grew up around it. Typically, our family doctor was also on staff at the hospital, so they were close by. They are often in inconve- nient, congested locations. Today’s hospitals have gone through dramatic changes. The most successful ones have remained where they have been for decades, but have done that by improving access, adding structured parking, improved signage and wayfinding, add- ing pharmacies, restaurants and other community related amenities. The ones unable to adapt have ceased to exist. Newer hospitals have chosen
locations easily accessible to large populations – typically near highway interchanges and public transportation. While the number of hospitals has shrunk, other sources for healthcare have seen dramatic growth: Urgent Care Centers feature licensed doctors that can treat conditions normally handled by hospital emergency rooms. They’ve seen dramatic growth due to the difficulty in sched- uling doctor’s appointments after working hours, a jump in emergency room visits and a decrease in the number of emergency rooms. According theAmericanAcad- emy of Urgent Care Medicine (AAUCM): • There are approximately 8,700 walk-in, stand-alone ur- gent care centers in the United States, and 700-800 new facili- ties open every year. • Emergency room visits now number approximately 110 mil- lion annually. • In a ten-year span, from 1994 to 2004, the number of hospitals and emergency rooms decreased by 9%, while emer- gency room visits increased by more than one million visits a year. Urgent Care Center sites are selected by following the same formula that major retailers fol- low: high visibility, high traffic counts and easy access from major roads, close proximity to strong related retail locations like pharmacies, ease of ingress and egress and locations near dense populations. Retail Medical Clinics are commonly located in retail pharmacies like CVS, RiteAid and Walgreens and big box retailers like Walmart. Com- petition from the supermarkets like Safeway is also seeing rapid growth. They are typically staffed by an advanced-degree nurse such as a nurse practi- tioner. The clinics treat routine maladies like pink eye, ear infections or strep throat and handle immunizations. Bruce Japsen of the NewYork times reports: • CVS Caremark, which has 650 MinuteClinics, plans 100 new clinics per year through 2015 • “The number of retail clinics jumped 11.2 percent to 1,355 in 2011,” according to a report by Thomas Charland, chief execu- tive of Merchant Medicine. Retail Medical Clinic loca- tions are in retail building Continued on page 26B
up there in the first place are questions wh o s e a n - swers have shifted dra- matically in recent years. Past gener- ations found
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Buck Collins
their healthcare in the local hospital or family doctor’s of- fice, which were often very close to the hospital. The hospital was in the older suburban or urban center areas and was an
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