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Pharmacy chains Walgreens and CVS are expanding the services offered in their retail clinics, moving beyond colds and common infections to treat chronic health conditions like asthma.

After deciding not to expand the number of retail clinics, the pharmacies are instead trying to “create a health corner — a real center that looks like you are walking into the doctor’s office,” Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson told the Chicago Tribune.

Nurses are being trained up to give injections for asthma or osteoporesis. At other clinics, wart removal and treatment for sprains are being offered. Some are also piloting the administration of injection biologic drugs, according to the Tribune.

It’s also not clear how successful these programs will be in luring consumers to the clinics. A mere 2.3% of families used a retail clinic in 2007. In March, CVS closed 90 of its clinics until the next flu season. And some states, such as Illinois, have been debating the need for better regulation.

Retail clinics are supposed to be more convenient and cheaper than going to a doctor’s office. But some doctors say that consumers need to be careful in deciding to go to retail clinics for chronic conditions or more specialized care.

“A sprain could be a muscle tear or a break, for crying out loud, so how does a [retail] clinic know when the patient comes in that they are going to treat a sprain?” James Milam, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, told the Tribune.

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Retails Clinics Set to Roll Out New Services