Editor,
I applaud efforts to increase health care access to rural locations, especially for evenings and weekends when most physician offices are closed. Thus, I wish Davis Medical Center and the Davis ShopNSave all the best in their new joint venture. I must protest, however, their current plan as described to me to use the same entrance for the urgent care and grocery store. It is my view that encouraging sick patients to come to a grocery store where healthy people wish to shop is a bad idea that potentially increases infectious disease risk to the general population. If such a partnership is to be successful AND in the best public health interest, then a separate entrance to each entity is essential. The Elkins Walgreens and Med Express employ this strategy to keep the sick separate from non-sick, and I believe DMC and ShopNSave should do the same.
Bret Rosenblum MD
Davis WV
