Access to care

This story from Baltimore highlights how access to healthcare remains a key issue in understanding the health landscape.

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.