Letters to the Editor
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When you have kids, you MUST go in for diagnosis and treatment...
...And when you get old, and start falling apart, you need to go too. Apparently, a bunch of people in their early twenties, people who have no kids, people who never go to doctors, wrote all this theoretical stuff on this thread
Those Walmart/Meijer-style clinics work just fine. Some of them take insurance, and some of them have MDs, in addition to their Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.
Walmart does not own the clinics. Walmart just rents space to them. Stop with your out-of-date preconceptions. If you have a problem, walk into one of those clinics. I bet you will like how they treat you. Next step for American health care will be walk-in Dentists.
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The "evils" of socialized medical care
well, I live in a foreign country that provides evil socialized medicine for its citizens. Every HMO here in the country has a system of immediate care clinics that open after regular doctors' hours (around 7 pm). Emergency rooms are reserved for just that- emergency medical situations that cannot be handled by regular doctors. If you child wakes up screaming from ear pain late at night, you go to one of these clinics which are usually open until 11-12 at night.
As for same day appointments, this is a given here as well. I've never heard of anyone not being able to see a doctor for a sore throat or fever the same day.
[shrug] I'm still waiting for the wonders of the American system to make themselves apparent.
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Medical Tourism
I know this is about "retail health"; but I also feel this article is about options. I'd like to say something about another area of health that is growing, is fantastic, and has worked well for me. Medical Tourism. 3 years ago I had to get a knee replacement. After already having had a terrible experience with the American healthcare system, with what was supposedly the "best doctor around", I decided to try getting my knee replacement in Thailand (Bumrungrad International ). The cost was 1/10 what was quoted here in the states.
Everything went perfect, as well as excellent accomodations, and follow up. If anyone thinks these countries offer 3rd world health care, you need to get your head examined, they kick the U.S.'s ass, IMHO.
To me, U.S. healthcare is lame, greedy, error prone, and will screw you of everything you've worked hard for. I no longer believe the old propaganda about the horrors of other countries and their inferiorities, I've seen the light. There's no turning back for me. If you can make the trip, you will not be sorry, just don't be stupid. Do your homework and know where you're going. I understand India is worth looking into as well. Screw this US shit, I've had it up to here! If you can fly, there's options and hope for you.
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Always low prices
Wal-Mart does have very low prescription prices. Much lower than anybody else. And they are nice and professional, too. I think they figure on making money by you shopping when you come in for your prescriptions, which is fine with me if it helps lower the cost of drugs.
Regarding doctors, they are their own worst enemies on topics like this. If you visit a doctor's office, the parking lot contains two old Hondas that belong to his nurses and one new Porsche or 7-series BMW. Always. I'm sure doctors deserve the best in return for their professionalism, but it really rubs the noses in the ground when they struggle to afford co-pays so that doctors can drive uber-cars.
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Are there any real doctors left?
Read an interesting article a while back about the doctor who discovered El Dopo - the one they made the movie with Robin Williams and Robert Deniro about. He said the advent of the diagnostician has destroyed medicine, and he was working to create true "medical homes", where doctors actually knew their patients.
Pertinent anecdote - a friend was feeling run down and having unusual pains for an extended period of time. She made repeated visits to her doctor's office, which was plush and came with the required fancy diplomas on the wall. After many visits she was told "We have to wait for the blood tests to come back but it looks like you have AIDS. We'll know for sure in a week to 10 days." A potentially life changing "diagnosis" based on nothing but the fact that he had been throwing shit at the wall for 8 months and nothing had stuck. He didn't know my friend, didn't get to know her, didn't want to know her. All she was was a list of symptoms (turns out her malady was that she was stuck in a very bad relationship and under enormous stress, but the doctor never got that far before giving her what was, at the time, a death sentence). And now doctors like this are glorified on TV (paging Dr. House).
Maybe when doctor's offices stop being run like dentist's offices people will return to the fold. I'm sure they will, because what's changed is the practice of medicine, not the patients.
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"medical home," that's a good one
My family has good health insurance and two family doctors--one for my husband and me and a pediatrician to which we have taken our children for preventive care every year since they were born. But when one of us is sick, we still find ourselves languishing for hours in the crowded waiting room of the local urgent care facility. Why? Because our doctors work only Monday through Friday until 5 p.m. Even when one of us conveniently gets sick during office hours, it's often the next day before we can get an appointment.
Parikh couldn't be more right about the need for innovation in medical care. Medical care should be patient-focused, and delivery methods need to evolve. If it takes a chain of Wal-Mart clinics to get people the help they need when and where they need it, maybe that's just what the doctor ordered.
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I have great insurance and I use drop in clinics!
I work for a state government and have terrific insurance. I still have to wait a considerable time to get an appt and often the care is even more perfunctory than a retail clinic.
I'm an RN and was long resistant to the clinic concept. My sea change moment was when I wanted to get contact lenses and my eye dr. was booked 6 months out. I got an appt the next day at a Wal-Mart eye clinic. I got a great exam and walked out with my lenses. And they let me put it all on American Express!
Now, if I have a rash or sore throat, I go to a walk-in clinic. My time has value to me and I'm no longer willing to take off from work and beg for an appt a month or 2 ahead of time.