Bonus Clip: Dr. Tom Lee Talks About Why Retail Clinics Are Not Doing So Well, in His Opinion

Retail clinics have been a concept for 20-plus years — and by Dr. Tom X. Lee's assessment, they've largely failed to become what they promised. They're convenient vaccine shops and minor urgent care stops, but very few have become true longitudinal primary care destinations. In this bonus clip, Stacey Richter shares a sidebar conversation with Dr. Tom X. Lee, MD, founder of One Medical and Galileo — pulled from a longer conversation recorded the previous summer — that she describes as all the more relevant given recent RHV conversations about trust, mission, and margin. The discussion zeroes in on why access alone isn't enough, and what it actually takes to deliver on the promise of primary care. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ✅ Why retail clinics have succeeded as transactional urgent care and vaccine sites but have not delivered longitudinal primary care despite 20-plus years of trying ✅ How access and longitudinal care are fundamentally different things — and why confusing the two has led major retail players astray ✅ Why running a primary care service operation is not a second job: the underestimated operational complexity of delivering care as a core business ✅ How low reimbursement and high complexity overhead have diminished most primary care practices' ability to deliver on their original promise ✅ Why open access is an operational discipline — not a dollar problem — and why so few organizations actually execute it WHY THIS MATTERS Primary care's value proposition has always been delivering better outcomes at lower cost — but that only works if primary care is functioning as a true longitudinal relationship, not a transactional encounter. When retail giants like Walmart evaluated clinic square footage against tire sales, it revealed just how far most organizations were from treating care delivery as a core service operation. Dr. Lee's framing is a useful lens for anyone designing or funding primary care models: what is your definition of primary care, and are you actually delivering on it? === LINKS === 🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page ✉️ Enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the free weekly newsletter 🫙 Support the podcast with a small donation to the Tip Jar 🎤 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎤 Listen on Spotify 📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel === CONNECT WITH THE RHV TEAM === ✭ LinkedIn ✭ Threads ✭ Bluesky ✭ X 00:00 Introduction. 01:01 Why have retail clinics failed in being longitudinal primary care destinations? 01:32 Why access is an important factor, but not the only one. 02:10 Access vs. longitudinal care. 02:47 The challenges of operating a service operation within primary care. 03:47 What is a longitudinal primary care destination and why does it matter? 04:15 How is primary care not delivering on its promise? 04:27 How is the "promise of primary care" different than an urgent care or MinuteClinic?