Why You Should Consider Your Local Urgent Care Center

Seeking treatment from an emergency room setting can be less than ideal, especially if you are looking for medical care for a less than emergent medical concern. All too often, people spend at least one full hour in the waiting room alone – if not an even longer stretch of time than this. For many people, the average emergency room stay for even a minor condition will span hours, wasting valuable time and money. For emergency room visits are quite hugely costly as well, the average trip to the emergency room coming out to be at least $1,000 – if not well over this amount.

For the vast majority of people, avoiding the emergency room is more than ideal, unless a medical emergency is really and truly taking place. But how? How can an ER visited be skipped when the typical doctor’s office is closed? It’s all thanks to the urgent care center. Urgent care centers are becoming more and more commonplace, and up to 85% of them are actually open each and every day of the week. Some urgent care locations are even open up to 24 hours out of the day! And urgent care centers are typically open earlier into the morning and later into the evening than the typical doctor’s office, making it even more of a viable alternative.

Of course, the treatments that the typical urgent care clinic can provide are also hugely important – and they are more extensive than many people realize. For one thing, walk in clinics can quite easily treat minor infections and illnesses. After all, there are many infections that are quite common. UTIs alone are diagnosed more than eight million times over the course of a single year. In addition to this, ear infections are also commonly seen – though primarily in children.

An urgent care clinic is likely to see its fair share of flu cases as well. After all, some particularly bad years see the flu infection as much as a full 20% of the population of the United States. Even in much more mild years, up to 5% of all people throughout the United States alone will come down with the flu. And while the flu cannot be cured, an anti viral treatment can help to reduce its duration and overall severity. In an urgent care clinic, this treatment will be easily found.

Urgent care locations can even help to provide flu prevention in the form of the flu shot. Getting the flu shot is hugely recommended for anyone who is over six months of age, as it will always provide at least some level of protection against the flu. Even if you still ultimately end up getting the flu, having had the flu shot will shorten both the duration of the illness as well as its overall severity, lessening the chances of having any of the more serious complications, such as pneumonia or sepsis.

Urgent care locations can also treat basic illnesses as well. Consider infections, of which there are many different varieties. Urinary tract infections have been found to be particularly common, infecting more than eight million people over the course of just one year. Fortunately, these infections can typically be treated with a simple course of antibiotics, a common form of urgent care treatment. Injuries can also be handled, however, in your local urgent care center.

The typical urgent care location is likely to see a great many ankle sprains, of which up to 25,000 will occur throughout the course of just one single day. But the average urgent care center will be able to treat more serious and severe injuries as well. In fact, more than three quarters of all urgent care centers (around 80% of them, to be just a bit more precise) actually have the capabilities to treat fractures thoroughly and well. For many patients, this allows them to completely avoid an emergency room visit, something that is certainly more than ideal for a wide array of reasons.

If you’re considering getting medical care, consider your local urgent care centers, as such clinics can provide high quality treatments of many different kinds and for injuries and illnesses.