care clinics to open in CVS stores

By Paul L eighton Staff Writer

BEVERLY — CVS Pharmacy stores in Beverly and Swampscott are planning to open new in-store health care clinics as part of a push by the national drugstore chain to get into the primary and urgent care business.

The clinics will provide both in-person care and virtual visits for a “full spectrum” of medical needs, including acute issues, primary care and chronic conditions, according to CVS.

The clinics will be in the CVS’s at 19 Dodge St. in the North Beverly Plaza, Beverly, and at 413 Paradise Road in Vinnin Square Plaza, Swampscott.

The new clinics are part of a partnership between CVS and Carbon Health, a company that operates more than 125 clinics in 13 states, including in Boston, Dedham and Framingham in Massachusetts.

Carbon Health announced in January that it had received $100 million from CVS Health Ventures and would pilot its clinics inside select CVS locations.

In Beverly, the Carbon Health clinic will replace the MinuteClinic that’s inside the store. The Carbon Health clinic will take up more than 15 times the space of the MinuteClinic, according to plans filed with the city.

The expansion will take place entirely inside the store, so the overall footprint of the store will not increase. The new medical space will be 3,100 square feet compared to the 200 square feet the Minute-Clinic now occupies. The entire store is 13,200 square feet.

The MinuteClinic at 19 Dodge St. is scheduled to close on Saturday. The rest of the store and the pharmacy will remain open while the new space is being built out, the company said. The CVS in Swampscott does not have a MinuteClinic.

Rhode Island-based parent company CVS Health Corp., which was founded in 1963, employs 219,000 workers.

Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews. com, or on Twitter at @ heardinbeverly.