Check Up on Aisle Five!

I cannot tell you how many times I've wished I could combine a grocery shopping trip with a visit to the doctor's office. Well, luckily I live in Dallas, where some time later this summer we can all go to the new Carnival flagship store in Oak Cliff and not only visit the butcher but also the doctor and hope we didn't confuse the two. Today's subscription-only Law & Health Weekly, which I take alongside Gastroenterology Today and Innards Monthly, reports that Dallas-based MedXpress, which is "pioneering flat-fee, family medical clinics located in grocery stores and pharmacies," will open its first clinic under an agreement with Minyard Food Stores, Inc., which, of course, operates Carnival. The story also says MedXpress will open "up to five clinics in Minyard stores throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex by the end of 2006, with up to 25 projected over the next three years," and that the clinics will be staffed by "either a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant and will charge a fixed price, typically in the $45 range, for a variety of routine medical services including physical exams, immunizations, flu shots and treatment of common illnesses such as allergies, bladder infections, bronchitis, ear and sinus infections and strep throat." You don't even need an appointment, and MedXPress promises you'll be in and out in 15 minutes. No word on whether Whole Foods will open a holistic healing center in its stores. --Robert Wilonsky