Until COVID, pharmacies were mostly just for dispensing medications (and a retail section that occupied most of the store), but in the last 5 years or so there has been a move toward having nurse practitioners or physicians at these stores to see walk-in patients. COVID pushed that forward rapidly so that most of the larger chain drugstores have remodeled their spaces to create waiting areas for a "doc in the box" office. My daughter felt symptoms on Tuesday last week, was able to get into the pharmacy doc the next day for a PCR test and a Paxlovid Rx on Wednesday, and is now recovering from COVID caught at work. The immediacy of needing the anti-retroviral in a high-risk individual meant that resource was invaluable.

The big pharmacies (CVS and Walgreens, in particular) are buying up doctors networks and health care plans to integrate all of these services. And increase profits.