MinuteClinic at 318 West El Norte Parkway, Escondido, California.

I work in a school and have to have a TB screening every 3 years. Three years ago, I didn't have insurance and went instead to a US Healthworks, which was dirty, chaotic and crowded. This year, I do have health insurance - but I'm also very healthy and I'm on an HMO plan, which means that if it's been over a year since I last saw him, they wanted me to schedule an appointment just for a TB screening. It would take 3 weeks to get in. NOT! I did a search for the closest urgent care kind of place and found this one.

This CVS location is clean, cheery and spacious. I went to the Minute Clinic area which is in back, and found that you're supposed to check yourself in at a kosk. Did that, and it told me my wait time was 3.5 hours... but it would text me 30 minutes before I would be called. I'd gone out that afternoon with 4 errands on my to-do list, and decided to-do this one first because I knew the wait time would be the longest. Having this text-you're-next feature freed me to go run my errands. I headed out and had just finished my last errand about 2 hours later when my smart-watch buzzed and told me I should return for my turn.

I don't know about how great these kinds of places are about diagnoses and treatment - you're being seen by a physician assistant, after all - but I liked my screening experience very much. For a routine screening and ultimate convenience, I don't know how you can possibly beat this place. They do physicals. as well, which must be great for busy moms.

To sum up - this is a walk-in, no-appointment center that handles routine screening and care kinds of issues, and for that it seems ideal to me.