One-Stop Shopping for Better Health

Driving from one end of town to another for physician appointments, to pick up prescriptions and to take classes at the gym can be taxing. But that won't be so if the idea of "health-care villages" takes hold.

These centers, which include optometrists, spas and doctor's offices, offer one-stop shopping for health-care needs. They are already open in Wisconsin as well as in Nigeria and Ireland; plans are taking shape for others in North Carolina and Arkansas.

The concept aims to make the health-care experience more positive, with a less sterile, institutional feel, says Donna Jarmusz, senior vice president of Alter+Care, a Skokie, Ill., health-care real estate firm, one of several promoting the idea. Part of that feeling is created by including restaurants and fitness centers, so people won't be intimidated about visiting the villages. And the more positive the visit, the creators say, the more people will be encouraged to be healthy, cutting costs spent on preventable diseases.

Further, with several facilities close to one another, it's easier for the village to become technologically integrated, Jarmusz says. "The burden is not on the patient to coordinate X-rays or records. It's now [on] the health-care providers."

-- Kathleen Hom