Beyond the Gift Shop

In Beyond the Gift Shop, Mindy Thompson-Banko explores the collaboration between two very different industries—retail and healthcare— and what is required for them to work together and create something larger than themselves. Thompson-Banko’s arguments are based on the premise that the healthcare industry, as arbiter of patient care and treatment, should be the point of delivery for retail products and services needed by patients during recovery or for the management of chronic conditions. Healthcare retail is about providers owning and operating their own stores within their own facilities to provide a comprehensive range of products for patients, caregivers, employees, clinicians, volunteers, and visitors. Healthcare retail is about products, but it is also about business (how products are professionally sold), patient care (who needs what and why), and leadership and culture (new, innovative ways of thinking).