Thursday, May 29, 2008

Wait Times at Traditional MDs vs. Retail Clinics: 3 Months vs. Today, Seems Like a Real Nobrainer

Take Care Health Clinics, which began operation in 2005, has 28 clinics inside Walgreens stores in the Chicago area. The newest opened yesterday in Rockford. Take Care isn’t alone in the rapidly growing retail health-care market, however. The Chicago area has 24 MinuteClinics, each inside a CVS pharmacy, and Wal-Mart has also forayed into the health-care market and offered other clinics space in six Indiana locations.

When Elmhurst, Illinois resident Tina Tuszynski, 44, discovered her allergy prescription was about to expire, the wait for a doctor’s appointment was two to three months. Instead, she went to a local MinuteClinic inside a CVS pharmacy and got a new prescription. “It was a quick way to get my prescription without having to book months in advance,” she said.


Read more here.

5 Comments:

At 5/30/2008 1:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another graduate of the G.W.Bush School of Analytical Anecdotes.

Maybe if that lady paid her bills her doctor would see her sooner? Somehow I always manage to get into see my Dr. within 4 to 48 hours.

 
At 5/30/2008 2:00 AM, Blogger juandos said...

anon @ 1:49 AM whines: "Another graduate of the G.W.Bush School of Analytical Anecdotes"...

Since you've cluelessly ranted the above how do we know that your claim, "Somehow I always manage to get into see my Dr. within 4 to 48 hours" is even remotely factual?

Heck! You don't even know if the lady has or hasn't paid her doctor bills but in lieu of something credible about what potential flaws there are in these clinics you threw that bit of idiotic drivel in instead...

 
At 5/30/2008 4:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"how do we know that your claim, "Somehow I always manage to get into see my Dr. within 4 to 48 hours" is even remotely factual?"

With the best healthcare system in the world what else would you expect in the U.S.

What information do you have that leads you to believe that news stories by hard drinking, reefer smoking reporters are a credible source of information?

 
At 5/30/2008 7:58 AM, Blogger Will said...

Imagine that . . . the invisible hand reaching out to provide needed services. And it's done without any help from the nanny state.

Time to sell that Cigna and Aetna stock.

 
At 5/30/2008 11:35 AM, Blogger Jason said...

My daughter was feverish last weekend so I drove to the nearest urgent care, which was about 20 miles away. The three of us (she's six and her brother is four) waited for two and a half hours to be seen. The diagnosis was an ear infection and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic. My insurance co-pay was ten dollars.

There are two in-pharmacy clinics within three miles of my apartment (one is across the street). Yesterday I visited one and found out that not only could they have helped, but that I would have been seen and done in about 15 minutes. I would have had to process my own insurance claim for the $60 the Minute Clinic would have charged, but even if I had to pay 100%, my time (and my kids' time) is worth more than that.

 

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