John C Kim and International Adoption Video

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Hospitals Begin to Move Into Supermarkets - NYT ; whether this is good or not, depends on perspective of whether relationships matter in the longitudinal care of pts, the sore throat that wasn't because you see them all the time for the same thing ,and it

Hospitals Begin to Move Into Supermarkets

Published: May 11, 2009

As walk-in clinics at stores like CVS and Wal-Mart offer convenient alternatives to doctors’ offices and hospital emergency rooms, some hospitals are fighting back — with walk-in clinics at some of those same retailers.

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Laura Pedrick for The New York Times

At a health clinic in the King’s Market in Allentown, Pa., Fred Bartholomew was seen by Janelle Sharma, a nurse practitioner.

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Laura Pedrick for The New York Times

The clinic at the King’s Market is run by two regional medical providers, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Geisinger Clinic.

Around the country, hospitals are now affiliated with more than 25 Wal-Mart clinics. The Cleveland Clinic has lent its name and backup services to a string of CVS drugstore clinics in northeastern Ohio. And the Mayo Clinic is in the game, operating one Express Care clinic at a supermarket in Rochester, Minn., and a second one across town at a shopping mall.

Many primary-care doctors still denigrate the retail clinics as cheap, unworthy competitors. But hospitals see the clinics as a way to reach more patients and expand their business. And they argue that as President Obama and Congress warn of a shortage of primary-care physicians, the hospital-linked retail clinics are filling a vital public need.

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Personal Web site for John C Kim: KIDDOC.ORG

I am a pediatrician specializing in General Pediatrics, International Adoption Medicine, and in the diagnosis and coaching of families pursuing joy.