Bob

So the missus had to go to one today as she couldn't get into the doctors yesterday and they're closed on weekends.

Went to a CVS one nearby. First time, so a bit extra set up of form filling, but had to stick a credit card in the machine first, along with medical insurance card, without knowing the cost. There was a poster with some rough guides.

Anyway, so being the second patient, there was a 40 min expected wait time. So hardly quick as the adverts make it seem, but got seen after about 25 mins by the nurse.

Got charged a $35 co-pay rather than our regular $25 because they were a "specialist" apparently and if we got over charged it would go towards the bill, which ended up being $80 minus our co-pay that would be submitted to our insurance company.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the nurse didn't save the info on the computer so when she sent the prescription to our pharmacy and it failed, she had to go through and do it all again. That took a while and we don't get a paper copy, it does direct to your registered pharmacy, which is a MA thing and makes it much more hassle to price shop.

The visit was a bit meh. Checking the ears, but she only wanted to check the one that was okay and didn't want to bother check the other one despite the missus saying that was the one that was hurting. Eventually she did and agreed something was up and prescribed a antibiotic.

Not exactly confidence building stuff, nor really worth $80 for a 5 min look in both ears and a blood pressure check.

So anyone else go to any other pharmacies that do these minute clinics and have better experiences? What about any local type of clinics?

AmerLisa

Never heard of them, but it sounds pretty dodgy...

Michael

I think in CA they are referred to as "Walk in Clinics".

Bob

Seems they've got a different name where ever you look....only thing is the same is that you don't need an appointment and they tend to be staffed by nurses.

CVS, RiteAid, Walgreens have all got something similar to each other and then some towns have their own. Our town doesn't, but our old one does and there's one in one of the neighbouring towns.

Michael

They must have doctors since only doctors can write a prescription, diagnose problems, and make medical recommendations. A nurse can tell you to stay at home,, get some rest, and drink fluids such as prescreening phone nurses for some HMO's but they have very limited rights to diagnose and treat problems.

In CA, none of the chains you mentioned has anything like "Walk in Clinics". You might think they were nurses but they were likely doctors or interns.

scrubbedexpat097

In some states a Nurse Practitioner can prescribe meds, authorise diagnostic tests.
A nurse practicioner is more than an RN but not quite a PA (physicians assistant)

Bob

Well unless a doctor likes to sign her name with nurse after it and that there was a nurses certificate and not a doctors on the door, I'm fairly sure she was just a nurse.

These clinics are good for vaccinations and simple treatments such as ear infections, tests for strep throat, dealing with stitches and other simple stuff.

The nurse basically went through a computer list of things to do and ask, tick a box brought up another question etc, etc. A more detailed WebMD kind of thing by the look of it. There was a doctor on call at a central store else where if needed for anything else I guess.

Michael

As Sugarmooma said, maybe she was a nurse practitioner (I didn't know some nurses can practice medicine). I have a lot of respect for nurses since many are better than doctors but unless MA is unusual and allows a RN to do things that a doctor is supposed do (highly unlikely since the AMA wouldn't allow that to protect doctors livelihood), she was probably a nurse practitioner.

penguinsix

In our state they were called "Urgent Care" facilities. They were actually run by the hospital with part of the goal to keep "I have a headache" patients out of the very expensive Emergency Room and into a facility where costs are better controlled. As ER's get filled with non-emergency cases, hospitals are trying many ways to push some patients into another facility.

Michael

They use both names in CA. Sometimes they call themselves "Walk in Clinics" and other times "Urgent Care Clinics" and other times even "Urgent Care Walk in Clinics". I suspect some clinics don't like to use the term "Urgent Care" since people may see big $$$ just like they see big $$$ for ER and not use them.

Duncan Roberts

I'm pretty sure that Minute Clinic is a CVS brand. I've heard good and bad about them, although nothing fantastic. They aren't urgent care, they are pretty basic and they are largely staffed by nurse practitioners with the odd physician assistant thrown in. If you actually look at the cost, they often work out more expensive than a doctors appointment, if you have insurance, but the selling point is the no appointment, off hours availability. Good for a sore throat, ear infections and minor stuff like that but anything more then you're better off going to urgent care, the ER or your normal doctor depending one what it is.

Bob

A nurse or a nurse practitioner, makes no difference to me, nor did I look that closely, though I'm sure it'll say on the receipt.

All I know for certain was, she was not a doctor.

Bob

This CVS one was registered as a separate CVS clinic company based in RI, that is attached to a regular CVS.

Bob

Good point. This is open till late, 7 days a week, when most doctors are closed on the weekend and many practices are done by 5 during the week.

ER co-pay tends to be much more expensive than a doctors co-pay, $500 unless admitted over night and then it's $75 and that kind of number is pretty similar to a few folks we know and on our previous insurance.

There were a lot of kids waiting around for this clinic, so I suspect it's used as you said, for a lot of ear/eye/throat infections.

sir_eccles

We went to an urgent care recently that was specially for kids as it was run by phx children's hospital. Should have got a normal Dr visit copay we are now disputing an emergency room copay. Bastards. But otherwise I like urgent care drop ins very convenient there is a nice one near us run by proper drs not cvs.