Today we visited the high-tech genetics laboratory in the Childrens Hospital in Cincinnati, and a general purpose pharmacy called Wallgreens.
At Walgreens people can buy drugs for a cold, a flu, or pain releivers, and creams for cuts, and burns. The drugs are good for "household care" and first aid, for example, when you have a headache, or cut your finger. You don't get any help from a pharmacist,so you have to find the right drug for you on your own.
People in the laboratory (short: lab) want to find the reason for a serious disease, by testing your blood, and if necessary our genome. After the tests, the doctor gives you the right medication.
At Walgreens there are only drugs for "normal" diseases like a cold or a burnt finger. If you're seriously ill, you can't find anything. That's very important because otherwise it would be very dangerous. There are drugs with different kinds of price levels, so that everyone can buy the most important things.
Testing in hospital is very expensive, especially when your insurance dosen't pay everything, or nothing because you are out of the ordinary classification.
The hospital wants to find out how diseases work and what human beings can do to prevent or to stop them, so their purpose is reseach and development. To be successful, they need patients who go to the hospital and want to know what's going wrong with them.
The purpose of pharmacies is gaining money. For that, they need people who can not afford to see a doctor or don't want to go.
In my opinion, nobody can be forced to go to the doctor or to the hospital for checking. Nor can a doctor force you for a treatment, or a special test, for example, a gene test. It's always up to you, and you have the personal autonomy. Of cause you have to bear the consequences, for example the insurance doesn't pay for you after you rejected the treatment.
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A very good analysis of both places. I like how you addressed the issue of personal autonomy. Were you surprised at the variety of goods available at Walgreens in addition to medecine?
ReplyDeleteHello Jody,
ReplyDeleteyes, I was surprised by the great variety of goods. As a student of business, I think that they try to adress as much people as they can. For that, there a some reasons possible:
1. The malls are often at the outsite of the city, and the drive is longer
2. The pharmacies are in compition with the malls, and need as much people as possible to survive.
3. The pharmacies offer often low-price products, so they have to sell more stuff to compensate that.