Biotech Values

[urche]

Re: Healthcare at the drugstore

My concern is for the quality of service provided.

I concur and would take it further by being concerned that this care is not only prone to poor quality but has built in incentives to over prescribe to our already over-medicated US population. I admit it sounds great from a marketing perspective---CVS hires practicioners, and places them right next to a pharmacist, and then preys on clients who have a high likelihood of expecting medications for their ailments. But, consider how hard it must be in those circumstances to suggest to a client that maybe a drug is not the best treatment. For instance, it's all but certain that a mother of a kid with fever and earache is going to come out of the encounter with a prescription for an antibiotic that is probably unnecessary. And how well is that setting going to ascertain what other drugs these patients are already taking?

This approach to healthcare may deserve some merit for improving access at reasonable cost, but the incentives to prescribe inappropriately are perverse and alarming. I'd rather see these clinics at a kiosk in a mall than in a CVS store.

Urche.