Speaking of rethinking how to offer "public services" and medical care

The Idea Store brand
Originally uploaded by pachanga

(Photo: "The Idea Store brand" by Pachanga. Click here for more Idea Store photos.)

I've written about this quite a bit over the last couple years, and plenty about health and wellness planning, the cost of providing care to people without insurance, chronic health conditions (i.e., diabetes, asthma), the financial crisis of the Prince Georges County Hospital system, and similar crises in DC, such as with Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

But just how Eastern Market needs to be conscious of and responsive to changes in how people eat, and "decentralization" so too does public health and medical care.

I.e., the clinics in drugstores, supermarkets, and other places. (See "More MinuteClinics ahead for CVS," from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

If neighborhoods had clinics like these, run not by bureaucratcies, but health and customer centric types, wouldn't that off-load a lot of the noncatastrophic care off hospital emergency rooms, and wouldn't it be a better place to more regularly deliver wellness care and monitor and assist people with chronic conditions.

Just like the borough in the UK has repositioned libraries into "Idea Stores," how about "Wellness Stores" as neighborhood-based public health clinics, run on the peoples hours (morning to late at night) rather than "office" hours of 9 to 5?