Walmart Hires VP to Oversee Growth of Care Clinic Business

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville has hired a seasoned health care executive to focus on growing its pilot program of low-cost, walk-in clinics.

Sandra Festa Ryan has joined the company as vice president, Walmart Care Clinics.

Labeed Diab, Walmart’s senior vice president of health and wellness, said Ryan began with the company Aug. 3, according to a company memo.

Ryan has served as a strategic senior health care executive with more than 25 years of health care and leadership experience in various settings.

Since 2013, she had been chief clinical officer for CareCam Health Systems in Pennsylvania, a digital health company focused on using mobile technology to improve how well patients adhere to care management plans.

Before that, she was one of six founding officers of pioneering retail health clinic operator Take Care Health Systems, which was acquired by Walgreens in 2007.

Ryan was the first chief nurse practitioner officer in the convenient care industry, and she has been inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American Academy of Nursing.

Walmart opened its first care clinic in Copperas Cove, Texas, in April 2014. The clinics offer $40 walk-ins for anyone except the company’s own employees, who — so long as they participate in the company’s healthcare plan — can use the clinics for $4 per visit.

They are staffed by nurse practitioners, with a range of services similar to that offered by a general practitioner physician’s office.

There are now 17 locations in Texas (7), Georgia (5) and South Carolina (5).