Aaron and his wife both work. When one of their kids wakes up complaining of a sore throat, they begin a ritual staredown to determine which of them is going to have to wait for the doctor’s office to open, call them, wait on hold, schedule an appointment (which will inevitably be in the middle of the day), take off work, pick the kid up from school, wait in the waiting room (surrounded by other sick kids), get seen, get the rapid strep test, find out if the kid is infected, and then take them to the pharmacy or back to school, before returning to work.
Or, one of them could just take the kid to a retail clinic on the way to work/school and be done in 30 minutes.
The undeniable convenience and reliability of retail clinics is the topic of this week’s Healthcare Triage:
This was adapted from a column I wrote for the Upshot. Links to sources and further reading can be found there.
