North Memorial Health Care has bought Now Care Medical Centers Inc., a chain of urgent-care and retail clinics around the metro area.
The merger announced Friday is the latest step in the ongoing consolidation of the Twin Cities health care sector. It also shows how the medical establishment is jumping on the retail clinic bandwagon.
North Memorial, which owns a hospital in Robbinsdale and primary care clinics, is hoping the acquisition will strengthen its market niche in emergency services.
"As we were watching the shift in the market from traditional to more retail care, we decided it was time to leverage our strengths," said David Cress, president and chief executive of North Memorial.
Now Care has seven urgent-care clinics and eight retail clinics. Cress said they plan to open an additional eight urgent-care and 22 retail clinics in the metro area by 2010.
North Memorial in turn has one of three Level I trauma centers in the Twin Cities, meaning that it has the ability to treat the most serious cases. The idea is that North Memorial will be able to treat simple ailments at the retail clinics, located in Cub Foods stores, while sending patients who have more serious conditions to urgent care or to an emergency room.
All will be linked to North Memorial's upcoming electronic medical record system.
North Memorial wasn't the only suitor circling Now Care. Now Care President Patrick Dunleavy said his company had been approached by seven groups, local and national, but went with North Memorial because of business ties going back to 2000.
