Fast-Food Medicine

Fast Company, September, 2007 by Ellen McGirt

I'm not feeling so hot. Actually, I am feeling a little hot. And cold. Achy. Maybe I have mono? I duck into a MinuteClinic tucked in a back corner of a CVS near my home. There's no line. I'm greeted by a nurse practitioner who takes a detailed health history and gives me a quick exam. For my $20 insurance copay, he rules out allergies and major infections, diagnosing me with a nasty cold. Eighteen minutes later, I get a pat on the back, a reminder to rest, a record of my diagnosis, and a finger-point to the cold-medicine stash. "They keep the good stuff behind the counter," he advises.

Retail medical clinics, where a nurse practitioner handles routine issues such as colds, pinkeye, and bug bites, have gone from an experiment to a phenomenon in just a few years. There...