Westside Walk-In Clinic - The Walkable Clinic For Venice

I've not been as prolific as I'd like to be with new stories yet this year, mostly because I've been fairly sick for most of it so far. Then, just as I feel like I'm almost on the other side of it, my darling Mother comes to visit to escape the Minnesota cold ... and gets totally sick here in Venice. No bueno. I can't stand to see my Mom sick, and the over-the-counter drug store stuff hasn't made a dent in this awful bug, so when my friend Paddy told me about his great experience at the Westside Walk-In Clinic on Washington (right by Café Buna), I bundled Mom up and off we went to make her feel better.

 It's also all rainy now - of course - so it was a bit of an effort just to make ourselves go outside. We walked in to the clinic (with no appointment), filled out a little one page info sheet, and Mom was in to see someone in less than ten minutes. Hannah Veal, PA-C was the attending doctor, and the person Paddy had referred us to, so that was good luck. Veal is a 20 year resident of Venice, and after working in an east side Urgent Care for a bunch of years, she decided Venice needed a clinic of its own (and now she can go to work right up the street).

 Chatting with Veal made it apparent that she loves Venice as much as we all do, raising her little baby here and loving her community, saying "We'll never leave." Knowing that makes me not want to go anywhere else for my Western medicine needs ... and sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do the real meds. I managed to avoid it myself this time, but Mom was in worse straits than I. After a quick and easy exam, they did a little ear lavage, listened to her chest, determined that it was clear (not pneumonia), gave her a prescription for serious cough syrup and a Z-pack, and we were out of there in less than a half hour. The Walgreens is right up the street, so we got those filled lickety-split and Mom is now back at my pad resting and on the upswing. Oh, and when you check out of the clinic, they give you a coupon for 80% off of your prescriptions! For free! Take that, Big Pharma!

I'm so happy to know about the wonderful Westside Walk-In Clinic now, and hope that if you're feeling under the weather you'll give it a try yourselves. There's no reason to go to a big doctor office or E.R. when you have these lovely locals here to help in such an easy and affordable way ($89 for the appointment, with $15 off if you check in on Yelp! - where they have unanimous solid 5 star reviews). They take insurance, but don't judge or gouge you if you don't have it. Thank you to Hannah, who sent us off into the rain with hugs and the reminder that you get a FREE follow-up visit in the next week. AND they're open on weekends. AND you can walk there. Their business card says "We (heart) our patients". And you can tell. This is the spot, sick Venice. We are lucky to have them.

Westside Walk-In Clinic
3019 W. Washington Boulevard
#310-305-1801
www.westsidewalkinclinic.com