What do you do when you get sick on the road? Although no one wants to go there, it does happen. And ignoring the problem or hoping it will go away, never a good idea, is an even worse one when you’re far from home.
Illness struck us on a recent trip to Louisville. The morning after our arrival, I discovered that my oldest daughter (and co-author) Katie was not feeling well. She suffered an inner ear infection a few months earlier, and what she was feeling now was unpleasantly familiar.
Mind you, I “discovered” this because she didn’t want to say anything for fear of being a bother or derailing plans. Since Katie and her husband live in Chicago, they had used Walgreen’s Take Care Clinics before.
They did an online search and found one just across the river in Jeffersonville, IN. She was reserving a visit only as a last resort “in case things get worse.” Long story short: We went straight away.
“I don’t mess around. I hit you hard with strong antibiotics right away so you feel better fast,” said the perky nurse practitioner she saw. Within an hour, she had been examined, prescribed and medicated. The first dose of medicine was already at work well before lunch.
Take Care Clinics are part of Take Care Health Systems, a subsidiary of Walgreens, which offers Take Care Consumer Solutions through convenient care clinics at selected Walgreens stores throughout the country. Currently, there are more than 340 Take Care Clinics nationwide.
Walgreens is trying hard to provide health care that fits your life, and that’s an especially welcome commitment to worried travelers. Care is provided by board-certified and licensed Family Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.
No appointments are necessary, and clinics are open seven days a week and weeknights. Most forms of insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, are accepted. Charges for those without insurance begin at $65. Here’s a complete list of what they treat.
There’s no way of knowing if our experience was typical or not, but there was virtually no waiting the day Katie visited the Jeffersonville clinic. It was mid-morning on a busy Saturday just a few days before Christmas.
Most communities of any size have prompt-care facilities that are also an option for sick travelers. In fact, several years ago we had occasion to use one of these, too.
They’re not open seven days a week, though, and most of my experience with them, here at home and on the road, is overshadowed by long waits. For very serious situations, of course, the only sensible option is the emergency room of the local hospital.
It’s a big country, and 340+ Take Care Clinics doesn’t exactly constitute blanket coverage. You may or may not find a clinic in close proximity to where you’re traveling. But knowing about the clinics preserved our trip.
The visit to the clinic quickly put Katie on the road to health and gave all of us a lot of peace of mind. And it did all of this with minimum inconvenience, cost and time. Perhaps they will do the same for you someday.
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Article Comments
Katie says:
As the beneficiary of the powerful ear infection medication, I wholeheartedly endorse Take Care clinics!
March 27th, 2010 at 2:42 pm ::
Bill says:
There you have it, the voice of experience.
March 27th, 2010 at 3:32 pm ::
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