Quest For Blood Pressure Cuff Highlights Inequality

(By – Rachel Bluth, Capital News Service, via Kaiser Health News)

The doctor told Sharlene Adams to get a blood pressure cuff, so Adams set out to buy one.

For Adams, who lives in West Baltimore, that meant four bus rides, a stop for a doctor’s signature, two visits to a downtown pharmacy for other medical supplies, a detour to borrow money for a copay, a delay when a bus broke down, and, at last, a purchase at a pharmacy on the east side of town.

The one-way, 7-mile trip took 5 1/2 hours. Then she had to get back home.

She seemed unfazed. For Adams, this is what it takes to follow a doctor’s recommendations. Read more…

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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