Local pharmacies add walk-in clinics

"the growing trend has some doctors concerned"

I'll bet it does...money out of their already FAT pocketbooks.

The medical establisment has ALWAYS fought any type of health care that affects their profits. They fought (and still do) Chiropractic for YEARS even though NOW regular physicians are using MANY of the techniques Chiropractors have used for years.
Many doctors (MOST,in fact) are corporations now, getting obscenely rich off of the suffering of others,who can often ill afford to pay for decent care. Insurance rates are sky-high because of it.
I say, let them work for their money like the rest of us...medical care should NOT be based on the ability to pay and it should NOT be a for-profit business. People are suffering and DYING because of the Medical establishment GREED!

Nurse Practioners are as fully trained as physicians and they actually take longer when checking you because they are not licensed physicians and try harder to find the cause of your symptoms. I would rather go to a Nurse Practioner any day. My doctor has caused me to go into the hospital 3 times in the last year (the day after visiting him) due to miss diagnosis.

no more freedom wrote:

Nurse Practioners are as fully trained as physicians...

Let's see, a doctor has 4 years college plus 4 years medical school plus 3-7 years residency training plus medical examiner board testing plus board certification. How is a nurse pracitioner as fully trained as a doctor? If I was truly sick, I would prefer to see a doctor over a NP. One bad doctor doesn't denounce an entire profession.

Not in OR wrote:

<quoted text>
Let's see, a doctor has 4 years college plus 4 years medical school plus 3-7 years residency training plus medical examiner board testing plus board certification. How is a nurse pracitioner as fully trained as a doctor? If I was truly sick, I would prefer to see a doctor over a NP. One bad doctor doesn't denounce an entire profession.

so... you must be a doctor... right?? my mother had been to a "doctor" but it was a NP that found her breast cancer..

This is such a great idea and has several benefits. People w/out insurance can stop by one of these clinics and get treated for $20 rather than clogging up an emergency room only to need a simple antibiotic or something easy like that. It also introduces healthy competition to the medical field, which is needed. Before, people had no choice, they had to go to a Doctor's office and wait an hour or two to be herded through and charged out the *** to get 5 minutes w/ a doctor and then get whatever prescription the biggest drug company is pushing this week. I think this will cut down on that practice greatly.

If Doctors are not willing to use a NP in their office to clear the backlog of routine cases then yes lets see more of these type clinics. Having to see a Doctor every 3 months just to get Blood pressure medicine renewed makes no sense. Sort of like going back to the car factory to get your oil changed.

I wonder how many of the cases JeffCo gets are true illnesses and not just their former clients looking for pain meds?

Let's not forget that this drug store was involved in the huge drug bust a few years ago in which the head pharmacist/part owner was arrested and served time in federal prison.

kojack...pharmacists dont write prescriptions, doctors do. Doctors PRESCRIBE you with a medication that they think will help your symptoms. You then take your prescription to your pharmacy, where your pharmacists then fills your prescription from your doctor. The pharmacists then sells you the medicine.You should get your facts in line before typing the next time, you make all of us East Tennessee people look like uneducated hillbillys! And I think that the retail clinics are a great idea. They have saved me money a time or 2, and I saw a FNP just like I see when I go to my doctor and have to pay 5 times what it costs at one of these clinics.

If you have to sit and wait to be seen at these "clinics" near as long as you sit and wait on getting a prescription filled, you will be dead before you're seen anywya.

Pharmacy's are a JOKE!!! You can leave the emergency room with an extremely sick child at 4 in the morning....go straight to the pharmacy and they always say, "It will be a couple of hours before we can get your prescription filled." They need to get off their rear-ends and stay caught up on incoming prescriptions.

The bigger chains are the worst!!!! Walgreens and CVS!!

Whatever wrote:

The bigger chains are the worst!!!! Walgreens and CVS!!

I agree!! I changed from Walgreen because they gave me the run around over a RX and it took forever to fill. Went straight to my local friendly grocery store and they called and took any and all proscription out of Walgreens hands... and they did it with a phone call.

And it irks me that WalMart is getting in on this.. If there's a buck to be made, WalMart will dollar you to death!

Go to Wal-Mart and see a doctor? Where's the bar and strip joints?

Great! I pay $20 co-pay for my insurance! Plus have to wait and wait and wait! Not bad! Not bad at all!

It should be a great help to those without insurance.

tomw wrote:

Go to Wal-Mart and see a doctor? Where's the bar and strip joints?

Coming to a WalMart near you....

Not in OR wrote:

<quoted text>
Let's see, a doctor has 4 years college plus 4 years medical school plus 3-7 years residency training plus medical examiner board testing plus board certification. How is a nurse pracitioner as fully trained as a doctor? If I was truly sick, I would prefer to see a doctor over a NP. One bad doctor doesn't denounce an entire profession.

You are correct. NPs are not as "trained" as physicians. They do go to college for 4 years, graduate school for 2 years, and have to pass a board certification. The idea behind the clinics are to see people who can not get into their doctor's office that have ACUTE illnesses like sinus infections, colds, flu, ear infections. They are not meant for serious illnesses. So you would be "safe" if you were seriously ill. It isn't mentioned in the story that by state law it is required that a physician sign off on 20% of the NP's charts. So there may not be a physician on site, but there is a physician who is "checking" on the work. A Nurse Practitioner isn't for everyone, but they are intelligent humans who do know what they are doing and it is a proven fact they spend more time with their patients and usually less wait time.

They are testing this at 400 Walmarts nationwide. Expect it soon at your local one. Bet it will be clogged up just like the emergency rooms in no time either.

i'm getting tired of watching my doctor pull into his parking lot in his little mercedes roadster so boohoo if he loses a little money. they could get their incomes cut in half and still live pretty high on the hawg. i've always had pretty decent luck seeing nurses.

My question is this. Nurse practicioners have to have a board certified physician supervising their work and nurse practitioners have to have doctors to approve certain prescriptions. Generally speaking a nurse practitioner working solo just does not happen. So who are the doctors taking responsibility for the nurses patient encounters?