As a mom – who am I kidding – as a PARENT, we know that the best time for the kids to get sick is the weekend.
The pediatrician office is open all week during normal business hours, but they don’t get sick during normal business hours. Of course not! They get sick after hours or on the weekends. It almost never fails!
This past weekend, Lil Miss finally decided to join the rest of us and ended up getting sick in the middle of the night Friday night. For starters, I was fairly certain it was just a cold, but we all know middle of the night – the pediatrician’s office is not open and with the next day being a Saturday – I was royally out luck. (PS: We later learned that her “just a cold” was in fact a double ear infection – her first ever!)
Fortunately, I was able to use my Walgreens mobile app to look up a close location for
.
The first thing I took note of was the hours.
The clinics near me open on the weekends at 9:30am (8am on the weekdays). And you don’t have to have an appointment – you can walk in. And they were open as late as 5pm on the weekends (7:30pm during the week!)
Because I wasn’t sure what we were doing time wise (hubby was at work and the kids and I had spent the night at a friend’s), we decided we would be a walk in. Fortunately, we were able to tell from the website that there was no wait time at the clinic we choose.
When we got to
, we were able to locate the clinic immediately. It was in the back corner by the pharmacy and looked like a cute little clinic – kind of Doc McStuffin like. There were some chairs set out to make somewhat of a “waiting area” in case of a wait.
Our clinic had two touch screen computers where you sign in.
Unfortunately, after inputting all of Lil Miss’ information, it was brought to my attention that they do not see patients under 18 months old (and looking at the website closer, it is listed, I just happened to miss that bit of info!). While bummed, I understand that. Little people are a bit harder to treat when they are so young.
Fortunately for me, that meant I could get my sore throat and ear checked out as I had been having some residual pain from when I was sick the week prior.
I filled out my information and actually had the healthcare provider was waiting for me! (Surprisingly unusual!)
I have to share my favorite part, well most interesting to me part, of the entire visit.
The healthcare provider wanted to check me for strep so she pulls out a box, puts some drops of things in a vial, swabs my throat, puts it in the vial of liquid stuff, sets a timer. After the timer goes off, she pulls out the swab and puts something else in it and says we wait 5 minutes for the results! I may be a nerd, but that was quite fun to watch!
It was determined that I had some type of bacterial infection with the cold that is going around so she prescribed me antibiotics that she sent right over to the pharmacy that was literally outside the examination room! How convenient to be seen and then pick up my meds right there.
You can check out my whole Walgreens Healthcare Clinic visit over on my Google + album.
Some of my other favorite things about Walgreens Healthcare Clinics:
– I’m not sure about all insurances, but we get $10 off of our co-pay when we visit the Walgreens Healthcare Clinic.
– The hours are super convenient, especially when you have kids who wait until the pediatrician is out of the office for the weekend!
– Overall cost is not all that expensive if you need to pay out of pocket. I was provided my “bill” at the end and my entire visit was calculated to $76-ish. Not bad at all. And I spent quite a bit of time with the provider!
– Again, not sure about all insurances, but we get free preventative vaccines.
– Right now, school and sports physicals are $39 (regularly $69, but still not a bad price when you think about it!)
– No appointment necessary.
– I had no wait and you can gauge wait time prior to going.
– Convenience, convenience, convenience.
Walgreens Healthcare Clinics offers prevention and wellness; treatment; and monitoring and management with ease and convenience. I know for us, they will be the first thought when my family needs care before marching off to the pediatrician, or the regular doctor when hubby and I come down sick at the most inconvenient time (isn’t that always?)