Good...

because waiting in the Emergency Room bites.

"Doc in the box" concept growing

Company plans to roll out 1,050 minor care clinics in five years

There's a guy to watch on the business scene in Colorado. His name is Tyler Tysdal, age 35. One of the companies he's involved with, SmartCare, is hitting the radar now because it has begun rolling out the first of what it hopes are 1,050 minor-care health clinics in grocery stores and other retail establishments across the U.S. during the next five years.

Greenwood Village-based SmartCare is a sort of an advanced version of "doc-in-the-box" you might see at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club; you know, where the optometrist is in for a few hours, only SmartCare's nurse practioners schedules will mirror pharmacy hours.

SmartCare's licensed nurse practitioners will be able to handle a lot of the cases that end up in emergency rooms, but at just a fifth of the cost, the company claims. It's a large potential market. The company's research showed that of the 114 million patients who went to emergency rooms in hospitals in 2003, 15 million were treated for minor ailments.