I rarely feel the need to comment on commercials I see on television or in the print media. Even if it bothers me I’ll usually just blow it off. Not so with what I saw today.

The medical establishment had quite a few negative things to say about the retail store medical clinics that started popping up in stores several years ago. While I’ll admit that I’m sure much of it had to do with money there were some valid complaints  made. One of the main problems was felt to be that patients need to get their primary care at one location. One person should know everything that is going on with a patient so they can direct their care. Fragmented care can be a bad thing.

To answer this complaint the clinics assured everyone that they were there to treat simple illnesses like sore throats, bad colds, sprains, etc. And they provide these services at times when most primary care physicians are not in their offices. They stressed that they treated only simple illnesses and that their non physician providers could easily treat these sort of problems and that they did not want to treat chronic illnesses.

Today I see a television commercial by one of these clinics promoting diabetes blood testing, related exams, and education. Everything that they advertise as the diabetic services that they offer are the services that should be provided and tracked by the patients primary physician. I’m sure that most of their providers are well trained to treat diabetes and that they try to get the results sent to the patients primary doc but not always. 

My main complaint is that their needs to be a “medical home” for patients with chronic illnesses so that someone can be running the show. This home needs to be with the primary care physician. Many may disagree but that’s what I love about this great country. We can agree to disagree! I wonder if the fact that many of these retail store clinics are having financial problems is the reason that they are expanding their scope of care? Many physicians have certainly done that recently.  bjmdjd

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medical home · primary care · retail store medical clinics