Take Care clinics open in eight valley Walgreens

Facilities located across from pharmacy department

Larry Cruikshank/ViewCertified physician assistant Nina Nation examines patient Bianca Kelley, 13, at the Take Care health clinic inside the Walgreens at 8415 W. Desert Inn Road, Feb. 5. Eight valley Walgreens currently have clinics, and eight more are planned to be opened soon. Advertisement

Las Vegans in need of medical attention have a new option in the valley. Take Care health clinics have opened in eight Walgreens locations across the valley, with eight more planned to open soon.

"We treat episodic care and primarily patients who are unable to get in to their primary provider or professionals who can't get in to see their providers because they have to work, and because of convenience," Blanche Bragg, assistant lead nurse practitioner for the local Take Care clinics, said. "We're open seven days a week, so we're more accessible to the patients. Usually the wait's about 15 or 20 minutes, at most. Because it's episodic care, they're more focused visits that we're dealing with. They're in and out in about 20 to 25 minutes, usually."

The company was acquired by Walgreens in August and currently has 142 clinics nationwide and plans to raise that number to 400 by the end of 2008. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary operating independently inside selected Walgreens stores. Although it's conveniently located across from the pharmacy department in all of its locations, Take Care will call any prescriptions it may write for you to any pharmacy.

The small, efficient clinic usually is staffed by a medical assistant who sits at the front desk and a provider, either a physician assistant or a family nurse practitioner. Bragg tries as much as possible to staff the clinics with providers who live near the location.

"It makes for happier providers, and they become familiar with the patients that live in the community," Bragg said.

Despite the company's efforts to be familiar with the people of the neighborhood, it is not intended to be a primary care facility.

"The first question we ask when a patient comes to us is if they have a primary care provider," said Lauren Tierney, Take Care spokeswoman. "If they don't, we will refer them to one."

The majority of Take Care's patients come with upper respiratory infections, flu-type symptoms, bronchitis, sinusitis ear infections and a lot of rashes, particularly on children.

The company accepts most insurance. Bragg notes that this is more cost effective than an urgent care facility or emergency room, so the insurance companies like it, and because there's very little wait, the patients enjoy it.

"It's more appropriate than going to urgent care or the emergency room for, say, an ear infection," Bragg said. "There are several folks who have been coming here who don't have insurance, and it is affordable for them, as well," said physician assistant Nina Nation. "It starts from $59; it can go all the way up to $120, or plus, just depending, but it's been really convenient for folks without insurance."

Although the clinic has only been operating in Las Vegas a few months, it already has had at least one major success story.

"There was a patient that came in, and they were having a heart attack and they did not realize it," Bragg said. "They were just coming in for a prescription, and the man's wife came up to the counter and she took up a conversation with the provider."

Based on the conversation, he was evaluated and the direness of the situation was quickly determined.

"He was immediately taken by ambulance to the emergency room and they had to do heart surgery on him, so that was spectacular," Bragg said.