"Hi Everybody!"

Bad IDEA!!!!!!

Race to the bottom is BAD.

Will the clinics provide screening for lead poisoning?

Well, if everything else is racing to the bottom, then at least some people who's wages are almost at the bottom will have access to SOME customer focused healthcare and choice.

The thought of walmart providing medical care scares me slightly.

However, if they really do what they claim in the article, they might be acceptable for simple health related needs without the hassle of a real doctor's office or ER. It doesn't take a full operating room to splint a badly sprained finger or stitch up a moderately bad contusion.

If it was Costco, it would sound like a great idea. But Walmart, I would probably be much better off hopping into a dumpster and drinking the expired medicine I will find. Though their pharmacy doesn't seem bad,.

Can issue prescriptions for oxycontin and anti-depressants because that would be really cool.

I would definitely NOT go to them for any sort of diagnosis or complicated health problem though.

It scares me that this may be the only realistic medical treatment option for people without insurance.

Will this be any different that those stand alone Patient First type walk-in places?

It really depends on what is wrong with me. Something minor, sure I'd go.

Notice it says nurse practioners and not doctors. No thanks.

This is one small step towards the Sovereign Nation of Walmart...

Honestly, it might not be so bad. I was between jobs for a while, so I didn't have employer health care. However, my husband was working and he made enough that I didn't qualify for any sort of state assisted health care. We made too much for assistance, and too little to do it ourselves. It would have been nice to know that there was a clinic I could go to if something happened.

@crescentia: One of the best doctors I've had was a nurse practitioner.

Shopping List:
3 boxes of 9mm ammunition
2 cases 10w-30 motor oil
Beef Jerkey
Colonoscopy
Singing Wall-Mount Fish
Beer Nuts
White Tank Tops

@m4ximusprim3: A contusion doesn't require stitching.

Soon enough they'll be offering people "Wal-Aparments", get your own 2-bedroom apartment within your nearest Walmart! Also, now opening Walmart schools, Walmart dollars, you'll never have to leave Walmart again!

Doctors who can't get a job anywhere else diagnosing my ailments? I think I'll stay far, far away from there (as I already do with Wal-Mart).

@m4ximusprim3: We're a pretty anti-Walmart household -- but that said, for a while there my boyfriend had no insurance and barely enough money to eat. A Walmart clinic plus the $4 Walmart generic drugs might have let him get treatment rather than hoping he was young and healthy enough to fight off strep throat with no antibiotics. (He fought it off, but coughed for over a month afterwards.)

It's a freaking sad state of affairs when the Walmart clinic sounds like a lifesaver.

yes, because what we need more of in this country is a further integration of the corporate world & our health care system.

gross.

@Freedomboy: If by race to the bottom, you mean that visiting a doc for most things just isn't worth $200, then yes, it's a race to the bottom. I like this race.

Hmmm. I think this might be a positive thing, if it wasn't for the disgusting situation our health care system is in. I like the idea of a small clinic to help simple ailments. Unfortunately, people without healthcare that have much more serious problems will increasingly turn to clinics like this since they have nowhere else to go. Bad.

I have used the Walmart Vision center before. I have to admit, they were reasonably priced, provided me with cheap quality frames for my glasses and even picked up a small problem that my regular eye doctor missed. For a minor issue (a sore throat, for example) I'd have no problem going to a Walmart Clinic.

@Tush: I'm down when they start including hand jobs with the coffee.

@crescentia: Yeah, nurse practitioners are actually pretty damn useful and highly trained. That said, I'd certainly prefer to see a full MD, but the price difference is substantial.

Walmart health care is better than no health care. If people are concerned, we should be voting and protesting for the government to provide health care and fair wages for everyone so that no one needs these clinics.

Properly staffed (yes, with NPs) and supervised (by area MDs), this is a GREAT thing. The loss of the 'neighborhood clinic'-- the primary place to go for minor bumps and bruises and coughs and as a first-level filter for major issues-- is one of the reasons why the health care system is so screwed up in the first place.

This is awful, but I do agree that this may help bring down the cost of private clinics that have to compete. Then again, I really don't trust those 5 dollar prescriptions...

I can't imagine that these clinics would be meant for any kind of complicated health care. I think these would be more like basic walk-in clinics for minor issues, and if there is something worse going on then they would refer you to a clinic or doctor who could treat you properly. It sure is a shame that it's coming to this, but as long as the clinics are directly linked to a proven healthcare system, it could make basic healthcare that much more accessible. Which is what we need more of, no?

I vastly prefer nurse practitioners and recently graduated doctors for routine health care, and experienced doctors for specialties and surgery. I don't need to deal with the set-in-stone preconceptions of an old doctor who hasn't kept up with the new technology when I'm getting diagnosed, and I don't want to lose the advantage of experience when it comes to treating a known health issue.

There's a small clinic at my local grocery store. I got a flu shot there and was extremely happy with the way I was treated there. I would definitely go to a Wal-Mart clinic if it was as clean, comfortable, and efficient. My concern is that it might wind up looking like an inner-city emergency room. I am also concerned that people who don't have health insurance would attempt to rely on the clinic for advanced issues that require a specialist.

Basic, affordable health care that's readily available for minor ailments with an appointment made two weeks in advance? What's not to love? In much of Europe, the pharmacists there can do much of the same things already.

Real - and practical - fixes in health care are going to come from market-based'innovations' like this.

@laserjobs: That's a good question, especially in areas that have histories of prescription drug use (ie Kentucky and Oxy). Does anyone know about that?

Anyone notice the story well below this one about Americans going to Mexico for dental work?

Gotta love the insane health-care insurance bureaucracy that makes Mexican dental work and Walmart nurses a better option than, you know, insurance-plan covered doctors.

@arch05: A contusion can lead to a laceration. Bad ones often do, so yes, a contusion CAN require stitches.

Its a sad sad state were in. My parents are in the same boat no insurance and just barely above the maximum income to receive state assistance. It would have saved them probably a couple hundreds if they went to Walimart for bronchitis and generic drugs.

@crescentia:

Nurse Practitioners are definitely qualified to treat common things like sore throats and colds. There is nothing wrong with going to a nurse practitioner. People don't need to see a Doctor for every single little thing.

I don't see a huge problem with this. Not everyone can afford to go (or have to go) to their doctor everytime they get sick.

: /

Thanks, but if I'm so anal that I won't even allow Wal-Mart to do my hair and nails (ours has a "salon" ), I'm going to have to say NO to the Wal-Mart clinics as well. Thanks, but I don't need a nurse practitioner that graduated 120 out of 150 in his class diagnosing my ailments.

This would be great for simple things like UTIs. It's frustrating when you don't have insurance to make a doctor's appointment for something that you *know* you have, you know how to treat, and will still cost you $100+, as well as added time waiting and off work, just for you to pee in a cup. :p

Just because your doctor doesn't work at Walmart doesn't mean he isn't a bad doctor. I think this is a great. It gives the uninsured (by choice or circumstance) the ability to get affordable healthcare.

I saw Charles Fishman (author of The Wal-Mart Effect) on BookTv about a year ago, and he had said that Wal-Mart sees their future in health care. I thought it was a good idea then, I think it's a good idea now. Many uninsured people (like me) already end up going to walk-in urgent care clinics - the only option being an emergency room visit, and having clinics in Wal-Marts is nothing more than a change of location IMO.

And hey looky here:
"Operator of Walk-In Clinics Shuts 23 Located in Wal-Mart Stores"
[www.nytimes.com]

CVS is starting to provide similar services. While I would not go to Wal-mart, I would go to CVS if it were less money than going to my dr. As my Dr. copay is $15, I doubt that's the case.

"We have learned that people are willing to receive their health care from the front of a store or the back of a drugstore," said Dr. John Agwunobi, a medical doctor who is a Wal-Mart senior vice president."

Really.

According to this "Dr.", the people of the United States are somehow exercising a choice to do without access to adequate health care services so that they can be herded like chattel into a retail pen and be branded like animals.

Why does this kind of ass-hat nonsense sound so familiar? Where have I heard this kind of doublespeak before?

"There is no doubt in my mind when history was written, the final page will say: Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world." --George W. Bush, addressing U.S. troops at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, Jan. 12, 2008

Right.

"I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas." --George W. Bush, on the former South African president, who is still very much alive, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007

That's enough, George. Thank you.

=====

"Most of us are dissatisfied with our current system. In health polling, happiness with the system is generally measured through a three-answer question: Does your system merely need minor changes, as it works pretty well? Does it need fundamental changes? Or does it need to be rebuilt? Of all the countries surveyed -- including the supposedly dystopic U.K. and Canada -- Americans are the least likely to report relative satisfaction, and the most likely to call for a fundamental rebuilding. Only 16 percent of us are happy. In Canada and the U.K., that number is 26 percent. In the Netherlands, it's 42 percent. Meanwhile, 34 percent of Americas want to completely rebuild. Only 12 percent of Canadians say the same, and only 15 percent of U.K. residents want a new system. So paying more than twice as much as anyone else, we have the lowest satisfaction with our health care system. Lower than the countries with waiting lines. Lower than Germany, and Australia, and New Zealand."

[www.prospect.org]

@TheOtherJen:
I used to have Kaiser insurance and they would always stick me with nurse practitioners who didn't know how to treat my severe sinus issues....so I have a reason to be weary.

Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector will be your doctor today.

Take two of these cans of bud, watch the Daytona 500, and call me some time after my hangover wears off.

Aren't there a number of similar clinics like this in Canada? If I recall correctly in Sicko, there was one clinic that was part of a drugstore up there.

The clinics sound similar to university/college health centers that are provided for students. Many are staffed by NPs and they're totally competent to diagnose most of the ailments that come in (strep throat, mono, STDs, UTIs, colds, flus, etc).

I'd go if I ever hit hard times and was without insurance.

Everyone is saying that only the worst of the worst doctors would work there. Haven't any of you heard of people who take low paying jobs where they will have to deal with the poor because they want to help people? I know a guy who is about to enter medical school. His after graduation plans include gaining experience while working in low paid situations so that he can help the poor, and hopefully someday opening a clinic for low cost treatment.

I've used one of these in-store clinics (it was at Target) and I had a rather pleasant experience with them. At the time I did have heath insurance, but my mom thought it would be faster to go to the clinic inside of Target, instead of the local emergency room or patients first because of how long I would have to wait. I waited for maybe 30-minutes and went in and got checked. The lady working looked in my ears and throat, saw that it was just my sinuses draining, and suggested I buy Sudafed to treat it. She didn't charge me a dime and I was feeling better the next week.

Sounds like a good idea for someone with certain minor ailments. For someone like me, with health insurance, it is sometimes easier (and faster)to get treated at one of these doc-in-a-box places then it is to make an appointment with my regular doctor.

@BRAD2723 More often than not, I can never get a same day appointment with my PCP, and by the time he does get to see me, I am already getting over my ailment. An option like this would be great.