An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
November 14th, 2011
Here Are Two Things You Don’t Hear Together Very Often: Walmart and HIV
As the parent of teenagers (and having been one myself many years ago), I’m acutely aware that everyone wants to think that he or she is special in some way.
And while that is literally true (that is, no two people are exactly alike), as anyone will tell you who looks up a Sunday Times crossword puzzle clue on Google, there are a whole lot of people out there very much like us — no matter how special we think we are.
But here are four things about me that, cumulatively, probably put me into a very small percentage of Americans my age in 2011:
- I have seen every episode of “Seinfeld” (several multiple times), but never watched a single “Friends”.
- I have never eaten at an Olive Garden restaurant. (Would love to try — how is it?)
- Despite half of my family being huge fans, I have never read any of the Harry Potter series — not a chapter.
- I have never shopped at a Walmart — in fact, I’ve never even been inside one.
This last one (a Walmart-less life) is not a conscious move, not a politically/ethically driven avoidance. It just so happens that the places I spend most of my time are not conducive to shopping at Walmart, even though there are seven of them within 15 miles of where I live.
Which is why this news, from NPR, came as something of a surprise:
Wal-Mart wants to be your doctor… The nation’s largest retailer is planning to offer medical services ranging from the management of diabetes to HIV infections, NPR and Kaiser Health News have learned.
If you don’t believe me, it’s right here on page 7, “HIV management and monitoring”, along with more than a dozen other conditions that Walmart will manage as part of the proposal to become “the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation.”
Walmart later backed off this claim, but still — you have to imagine they’re planning something for 2014 when the federal health law kicks in. Could this be the “disruptive” idea that helps relieve an already bursting-at-the-seams primary care system?
And as the treatment for HIV gets better and better, and our patients live longer and longer, we should start expecting to see HIV along side of many other chronic medical diseases managed by all sorts of caregivers in all sorts of ways.
Will MinuteClinic — the rhyme that’s not a rhyme — be next?
5 Responses to “Here Are Two Things You Don’t Hear Together Very Often: Walmart and HIV”
Paul E. Sax, MD
Contributing Editor
NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases
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Health care in this country is wracked with layers of expense that no one has been able to resolve. Congress made a bold step two years ago and many believe that it was a failure (I believe it was a tiny step in the right direction). If any institution has proven that it can wring the cost out of a business, Walmart has. Maybe they are the answer…
Walmart may end up doing a fine job of providing primary care–who knows? But if it offers Olive Garden quality medical care I will stick with my doctor at Johns Hopkins.
I think this is a Bold step taken by Walmart and hope they would take into consideration how to maintain the Confidentiality of the patients who will be visiting there as PLWHA’s are always sensitve of where they receive treatment.
I too was an Olive Garden wannabe until about six months ago, when I persuaded a kind friend to join me in a dinner at the one on 23rd and Sixth in NY. First: it was full at 6:30 in the evening (which no NY restaurant ever is). Second, it was the single worst meal I have ever had in my life, utterly tasteless. The marinara sauce and the salad dressing were indistinguishable. And the portions were huge. The meal never ended. The pasta was overcooked, in a bottomless supply. Anyway, if I were you, I’d change my sights to Red Lobster, where I used to go in Cleveland. The food there was great. At least, it was then.
Dear Urbane Diner,
Thanks for the cautionary note. Have also never been to a Red Lobster, but will add it to my wish list; will always link that place to David Letterman in the 1980s (it was one of his obsessions). My own personal favorite of the “Casual Dining” chains is (seriously) California Pizza Kitchen, while Cheesecake Factory is Exhibit 1 in “Why the USA has an obesity problem.”
Paul