Here Be Dragons

Putting “Retail” into Medicine

Here Be Dragons is the true story of what happens when you are bold enough to
try to transform a hidebound, multi-trillion-dollar industry. Today, millions
of people benefit every day from accessible, affordable healthcare at walk-in
clinics close to their homes. They are open seven days a week, with extended
weekday hours, and provide high-quality basic healthcare at reasonable prices
that are transparently posted. In 2020-21, almost everyone in the United
States benefited from the access to COVID-19 testing and vaccinations that
these clinics provided.

But retail clinics did not emerge without a fight. They faced strong
opposition from the medical establishment, overly restrictive government
regulations, and skeptical third-party payers. They also faced consumers who
were conditioned to believe that quality healthcare could only be delivered in
in an office or a hospital on someone else’s schedule and without having any
idea of its cost.

Physician practices and hospitals continue to play indispensable roles in
patient care, but the massive U.S. healthcare system has not proven to be
accessible or affordable enough for many patients and third-party payers. The
system needed to be disrupted, and Web Golinkin was one of a relatively small
number of people who have been able to do it.

However, this is not a book about unbridled success. Like many hero’s
journeys, Web’s story is filled with bumps, bruises, and a few dragons along
the way. Web began his journey by focusing on health information, starting the
first 24-hour Cable TV network dedicated to health, America’s Health Network,
which was eventually sold to Fox. He then helped to revolutionize healthcare
with RediClinic, which placed medical clinics inside drug, grocery and big box
stores and was later sold to Rite Aid. Most recently, Web was CEO of FastMed,
one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing operators of urgent care
clinics.

The fact that retail clinics are now a permanent part of the healthcare
landscape is evidence of success, but getting to this point has been a wild
and frequently very rough ride that challenged all the passion, endurance and
street-smarts Web could muster at every step along the way.