This is my local grocery store, where I am waiting in line*, observing a brand new addition – a retail clinic. In a grocery store. WTF?
They call this little shack “The Little Clinic”. Clearly. What makes me laugh though, is the signs in the background stating that this is a “perfect compliment to your primary care provider”. My question, of course, is: How?
How is this complimentary in the least? Do you actually think that the doctor will be informed of the “diagnosis” arrived at by the provider? Neither do I.
What I do know, however, is that the CVS store next door recently opened a retail clinic and was apparently taking too much business away from this store’s pharmacy – located just off camera to the left. I’m sure we’re all much happier knowing that this little shack is taking care of patient complaints.
In case you're interested, the AAFP has a quick tidbit about what these "complimentary" services should actually deliver - to be complimentary. Personally I wonder if this actually happens much at all.
*And yes, I did need chocolate milk. It's quite tasty.
** For more on my thoughts on retail medicine (like you don't already know), please check these posts.
2 comments:
We have Urgent Care facilities around here. They are marketed as ER alternatives. They are opened until like 10PM and are good places to go for stitches, a sprained ankle, or a child's earache over the weekend. My doctors do refer people to them when they feel you need to be seen but they are booked or it is the weekend.
If they are being run in this fashion, I don't have a problem with them. What I do have concerns about, as illustrated vividly by the picture, are the haphazardly placed clinics that are purely opened just to make the company's pharmacy more money.
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