Quickmedx

QuickMedx, the novel, quick-stop health care delivery company that uses nurse practitioners to treat common ailments, has only 10 mini-clinics open in Twin Cities supermarkets and office buildings. Nonetheless, CEO Linda Hall Whitman is talking confidently about having 500 clinics generating $165 million in annual revenue nationwide within four years. "And we might do it faster than that," she said. That might sound a tad optimistic, but given her track record I wouldn't bet the rent money against her. When I first encountered Whitman six years ago, she had recently resigned as head of Honeywell's global consumer controls business, which had grown to $250 million in annual revenue. Her new job: president of Ceridian Performance Partners, the Ceridian Corp. subsidiary that peddled employee referral and counseling services to corporate clients nationwide. In five years, she grew that business from $17 million to more than $110 million in annual revenue. Now she aims to take QuickMedx national - after changing the corporate name to MinuteClinic Inc. later this month. The QuickMedx name already is registered outside of Minnesota, Whitman said. The company is the brainstorm of entrepreneur Rick Krieger and his physician, Dr. Douglas Smith, who started QuickMedx with investors Steve Pontius and David Hopkins in 1999 as an antidote to crowded medical clinics, long waits and rising costs. The key was a proprietary software package that included all the protocols necessary to guide nurse practitioners through the diagnosis and treatment of simple maladies such as strep throat, ear and sinus infections and pink eye, among several others. . `High-quality care' QuickMedx has developed "a process that standardizes care and eliminates errors," said Dr. Glen Nelson, retired Medtronic Inc. vice chairman and former CEO of Park Nicollet Clinic who joined the company's board a year ago. The result is "high-quality care delivered in a far less-costly manner," he said. The strategy is...