Dollar General Pilots Mobile Clinics in Tennessee
- Dollar General is the latest retailer to get into health care, opening mobile clinics outside three stores.
- The stores — all in Tennessee — will offer medical care in mobile clinics outside powered by DocGo.
- The retailer for several years has signaled it is preparing to enter the health care space, appointing a chief medical officer in 2021.
Dollar General — the retailer with the most stores nationwide — is piloting mobile medical clinics at its stores as part of a partnership with DocGo.
According to Dollar General’s website, the clinics, branded DG Wellbeing, will offer customers a variety of care, including preventive care like physicals and routine checkups, vaccinations and lab testing. It’ll also provide urgent care services like COVID-19 and flu testing, wound care, migraine care, as well as chronic condition management for diseases that include diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.
Two mobile clinics will be located in Clarksville, Tennessee, while the third clinic will be parked outside a store in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee, according to Dollar General. The mobile medical centers will be parked outside of the stores and offer walk-in care and appointments, according to the retailer.
“We’re excited to pilot new mobile health clinics with services provided by DocGo On-Demand to provide services including annual physicals, acute illness, urgent care needs, vaccinations and lab testing,” said Dr. Albert Wu, Dollar General’s chief medical officer, in a release sent to Retail Leader. “These clinics demonstrate our ability and desire to work with our customers to bring affordable health and wellness closer to home while equally establishing Dollar General as a trusted partner where customers can access health services.”
The move is the latest instance of health care mixing with retail. Pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens for years have invested in in-store medical clinics for customers. Walmart has also for years offered in-store health care treatments for customers. The retailer has rapidly expanded the effort during the past several years with the introduction of Walmart Health clinics, which have separate entrances but are located next to existing Walmart stores.
Walmart first launched the clinics in 2019, and they offer services like primary and urgent care, labs, x-ray and diagnostics, behavioral health and dental care. Walmart Health began offering telehealth services in 2021. In total, the retailer has opened more than two dozen Walmart Health locations and it plans to expand this year with 16 new locations in Florida alone.
Amazon this week furthered its investment in the health care space with the addition of a $5 monthly prescription delivery service for generic medications for its Prime customers. It’s part of Amazon Pharmacy, which launched in 2020, as Retail Leader reported. The e-commerce giant purchased a chain of boutique health care clinics last year.
Dollar General has the most stores of any U.S. retailer with more than 18,000 stores in the country as of 2021, according to Statista. It’s nearly 3.5 times the number of locations Walmart (the leading retailer by earnings) has in the country, according to the data.
The discount retailer’s move into health care doesn’t come as a surprise. It in 2021 appointed Wu as its chief medical officer — the first time the retailer had such a position, according to a report from. It last year appointed four members to a new health care advisory panel.
“At Dollar General, we are always looking for new ways to serve, and our customers have told us that they would like to see increased access to affordable health care products and services in their communities,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s CEO, in a press release last year. “Our goal is to build and enhance affordable health care offerings for our customers, especially in the rural communities we serve.”