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Walgreen, CVS Expanding Services At In-Store Clinics

Walgreen and CVS Caremark are going beyond treatment of routine maladies at their in-store clinics and are now training nurses to do specialized injections for such chronic conditions as osteoporosis and are offering treatments for advanced skin conditions such as wart removal, Bruce Japsen reports.

"We want to create a health corner -- a real center that looks like you are walking into the doctor's office," Walgreen CEO Greg Wasson says of the retailer's Take Care brand clinics.

Retail clinics not only market themselves as a convenience, they also can be less expensive, providing a competitive threat to primary-care doctors and even specialists. Physicians say consumers should look at the added services by clinics with skepticism, particularly when it comes to care for chronic ailments. "A sprain could be a muscle tear or a break, for crying out loud, so how does a [retail] clinic know when the patient comes in that they are going to treat a sprain?" says Dr. James Milam, president of the Illinois State Medical Society.

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