Wal-Mart had no prior notice, company spokesman William Wertz said. SmartCare’s public relations agency issued a statement confirming the closures and referred questions to the company’s Texas headquarters, which didn’t return a call. The in-store clinics treated common medical problems like strep throat and ear infections for a $65 flat fee. The clinics, staffed with nurse practitioners, were open from early morning to late evening seven days a week for walk-in appointments.
With summer camps just around the corner, MinuteClinic is offering a free “camp starter kit,” complete with sunscreen, hand sanitizing spray, lip balm, a first aid kit, water bottle and disposable camera, all in a ‘backpack-style” drawstring bag to families who bring camp-bound kids in for their physical examinations. There are 16 MinuteClinics in Greater Detroit (see list below). They are all open nights & weekends with no appointment necessary for the convenience of busy families.
To complete the camp physical, MinuteClinic practitioners review the patient’s health history, ensure all necessary immunizations are up to date and provide a brief physical exam to determine if the child is able to safely participate in typical camp activities. At the conclusion of the visit, practitioners give each patient a MinuteClinic camp physical form stating the results of the exam. MinuteClinic will accept cash, personal check or credit card for payment of the camp physical offered at $59.
Source: HOMETOWNlife.com
Original Publication Date: June 19, 2008
Drugstore giant Walgreens is seeking state approval to open medical clinics inside 16 of its Massachusetts stores, providing the first sign of competition for CVS’s MinuteClinics, which earlier this year outlined plans to expand into the state.
Under the banner of its clinic subsidiary, Take Care Health Systems, Walgreens last month quietly submitted requests to the state to build clinics inside stores stretching from the North Shore to the South Shore, from the Merrimack Valley to Worcester.
The company also indicated that it wants to open a Take Care clinic inside a store in Roxbury, potentially setting up a showdown with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who fervently opposes the clinics. The mayor has argued that retail clinics providing episodic care will fracture the medical system, ultimately hurting patients.
One of the great fallacies of the current presidential campaign is that if the federal government isn’t Doing Something, then nothing is being done.
Such is the case with energy policy. Even as candidates blather on about the lack of a sweeping federal dictate on energy, businesses, researchers and consumers are reacting to higher oil prices by enacting their own energy policies, trying alternative sources, new technologies and conservation measures to see what works.
So, too, it is with health care. Even as candidates prattle on about the need for the federal government to solve the issues of insurance coverage and rising costs by taking over even more of the sector, hospitals, doctors, businesses and individuals are experimenting with new treatment schemes, new delivery channels and new financing approaches to see what works.
When patients walk into Barbara Shaw’s small office on North Wells Street, she can never be sure exactly what she’ll be treating them for. Heart attacks, day camp physicals, flu shots and psychoses all walk through the door and take a seat on the same examination table. They’re all charged around $60 for the visit.
Shaw’s office is inside a Walgreens, and Shaw, a registered nurse, is the clinic coordinator at a Take Care Health Clinic. The chain of drugstore 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. There’s even a magazine called “Retail Clinician.”
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