CVS “MinuteClinic” Best Practices

CVS Pharmacy is currently the largest pharmacy chain in the United States. All of the roles in a normal practice are rolled up into one person at the MinuteClinic. The MinuteClinic has a patient-centric focus. It provides on-demand access to primary care at the convenience of patient at different times during the day. Its cost value proposition is that it’s affordable care, fees are transparent, and it’s less expensive than primary care with high deductibles. If the patient does not have a primary care physician, CVS does referrals. CVS does not have doctors, choosing to focus on what they can do and try not to get into what they cannot do. All complex issues are referred out.

Best Practices

• Integrated Information - CVS has dozens of affiliations, including Cleveland clinic doctors. If you are a Cleveland clinic patient, CVS sends your information to Cleveland clinic – through Epic Care Everywhere which automatically connects with Epic anywhere with patient consent. They can send CCR’s and faxes to all other primary care doctors that are not on the Epic Care network. 
• "Hold my place in line" saves your place in line and also provides the patient with how long the wait will be. Furthermore, enhances MinuteClinic's convenience by giving patients information on which clinic to go to based on wait time.
• Efficiency - Using EPIC (62% of providers use), Minute Clinic is as close to automated as you can get. IT is also used for insurance card scanning, saving time for entry.  Ultimately providers want to spend more time with the patient rather than conducting data entry.