Walgreens Wants To Do Chronic Care

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Three cheers to Walgreens for fragmenting health care!   I have pointed out the way that NPs want to compete with us.  It has been a Trojan horse.  Well, now I actually found one of their transport vehicles and it’s these quick clinics like they have in Walgreens.  Here is an American Medical News article that points this out.

  • Patients soon will be able to go to a Walgreens pharmacy to pick up a box of tissues and come out with a diagnosis for diabetes and a care plan to treat it.
  • Walgreen Co. announced April 4 that it is expanding services at its 360 Take Care Clinics to include diagnostic and treatment services for common chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.
  • Although most retail clinic chains have expanded services in recent years to help drive more patient traffic year-round, Walgreens is the first to offer a one-stop shop for diagnosis and treatment for certain chronic diseases.

Amazing, right?  It was not long ago that they stated they weren’t going to do chronic care.  So why now?  Why not?  Of course this was their plan along.  The company said the move “is an effort to address what it sees as access issues many patients are having because of the growing physician shortage, an aging population and an increased prevalence of chronic diseases.”  Do you see how they use this as a shield?  Instead of fixing the physician shortage we should move toward the lowest common denominator.   What a mistake.  Here was was said by Jeffrey Cain, MD, the president of the AAFP:

  • “A lot of people use fast food as part of their diet, but if they base their entire diet on fast food, that’s ultimately unhealthy for them. And if we are basing health care for our people on retail clinic, episodic, non-integrated health care, then that’s ultimately not as good for our patients.”
  • “There’s potential for Walgreens to be able to help improve someone’s health care, but if the clinics are acting as stand-alone pieces, there is the real potential to further fragment an already fragmented American health care system”.

YES!!!!

Now can I hear from others out there that will join this fight with me?