Hospitals begin to move into supermarkets

As walk-in clinics at retail stores offer convenient alternatives to doctors' offices and hospital emergency rooms, some hospitals are fighting back with walk-in clinics at some of those same retailers. Many primary-care doctors still denigrate the retail clinics as cheap, unworthy competitors, but hospitals see the clinics as a way to reach more patients and expand their business. And they argue that as President Obama and Congress warn of a shortage of primary-care physicians, the hospital-linked retail clinics are filling a vital public need.