Walgreen Co. has stretched the reach of its drugstore clinics beyond treating ankle sprains and sinus infections to handling chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.
The company, based in Deerfield, Ill., said Thursday that most of its 372 in-store Take Care Clinics now will diagnose, treat and monitor patients with some chronic conditions that are typically handled by doctors.
The two Akron-area Take Care Clinics — at stores in Cuyahoga Falls and Barberton — are among those that will offer the expanded services.
Drugstore clinics, which are run by nurse practitioners or physician assistants, have grown popular in recent years as a convenient and less expensive way to treat relatively minor illnesses when a patient doesn’t have a doctor or if their physician isn’t available. But the clinics have been broadening their scope of care: Walgreen’s decision follows a move by competitor CVS Caremark Corp. a few years ago to start monitoring chronic conditions at most of its 640 MinuteClinics.
Drugstores say they don’t aim to replace doctors, but rather to provide people with access and to work with physicians as part of a team treating patients. But the move draws concern from doctors who say that can disrupt their relationships with patients and lead to fragmented care.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Cain, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, one of the nation’s largest medical organizations, compares the clinics to fast-food restaurants.
He said they’re good for the occasional meal but not something a person wants to rely on too much.
Physicians know their patients, and that makes them better suited for doing things such as helping someone with diabetes develop an exercise plan, stick with their treatment or learn how to eat better, Cain said. And different computer systems can make transferring records between clinics and health-care providers a problem, leading to test duplications and gaps in a doctor’s knowledge of a patient’s care, he said.