Aug 18
Valerie Fortunato asked a series of questions about his medical history, then performed an examination including checking his ears, eyes and throat, and listening to his lungs and heart.
In about 30 minutes, White left with a diagnosis of a sinus infection and prescriptions for antibiotics, antihistamine and a nasal steroid.
Fortunato is an advanced registered nurse practitioner, and her clinic is a gray-walled box inside a Publix supermarket.
Welcome to another facet of the future of medicine.
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Jun 30
From the front door of his 3-month-old walk-in clinic, Bucky Boaz can keep an eye on his competition.
The corner of Alafaya Drive and Lake Underhill Road in east Orange County features a Florida Hospital Centra Care, a Walgreens Take Care Health Clinic and a CVS Minute Clinic — in addition to The miniER that Boaz co-owns. A Publix Little Clinic is less than 2 miles away.
Nevertheless, business is brisk at The mini- ER, especially since mid-May, when Boaz had an outdoor-advertising balloon put up at the busy intersection. A nurse practitioner with 10 years of emergency-room experience, Boaz said his Waterford Lakes clinic is treating about 175 patients a week.
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May 16
Dawn Laney had a sore throat and was running out of options.
It was late in the afternoon, and she was flying to Canada the next day.
in Smyrna, near Laney’s home, so she drove there. “I was in and out very quickly,” said Laney, who was tested for strep throat by a nurse practitioner. “I was very impressed.” And she was on the plane the next day.
The MinuteClinic site that Laney visited is one of more than 50 such medical facilities within retail stores in the Atlanta area. The walk-in clinics — open through the early evening and on weekends, when doctors offices typically aren’t — provide care for minor illnesses and offer vaccinations, physicals and other testing.
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May 02
Publix Super Markets here opened three in-store health clinics run by The Little Clinic, Brentwood, Tenn., this month. One opened in the Tampa-area town of Palm Harbor, bringing the total of Publix clinics in the market to eight. Another opened in Apopka in the Orlando area. The Little Clinic reported that two additional Orlando area clinics are now under construction and will open later this year. The third clinic, in Miami, was the eighth Little Clinic in Publix Miami-area stores. Six additional Miami area clinics are now under construction and will open later this year.
Source: Supermarket News
Original Publication Date: May 2, 2008
Feb 04
Consumers today in the United States are increasingly driving their health-care decisions.
They seek and rightly so deserve high quality products at a reasonable price on their own time schedule. This consumer-driven attitude has fueled what some might term a radical evolutionary change in health care: the emergence of convenient-care clinics.
These small health-care facilities are located in high-traffic retail outlets like Kroger, Publix, Walgreens and CVS. They are usually staffed by highly trained clinic practitioners (typically nurse practitioners or physician assistants) who provide basic medical services, no appointments required, at affordable prices, seven days a week.
According to the Convenient Care Association (CCA), nearly 900 were in operation at the beginning of 2008, and it is expected that there will be close to 1,500 by the end of the year.
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