Top Three Advantages of Urgent Care

The world of medicinal care is much like a battlefield. It is constantly in flux since diseases continue to outthink and outsmart the medical treatments we concoct to counteract them and people continue to think of new and exciting ways to injure themselves. The medical world isn’t just in flux due to the development of new methods and techniques, however. It is also in flux because of the development of entirely new systems of organization within which the doctors who develop the techniques can operate. One such group of medicinal practitioners that has received relatively little attention from the public eye is the urgent care centers. Here are three reasons urgent care centers may have a step up on their more well-established counterparts:

1. They Offer Comparable Service

Urgent care centers are growing faster than almost any other segment of the American healthcare system. One major reason they have found such success and reception is the quality of service that they provide. In 2010, a study led by the Rand Corporation discovered that almost a fifth of all hospital ER visits could have been treated just as well in an urgent care center. This simple switch of care providers would have saved nearly four and a half billion dollars annually in health-care costs. While they may not be able to treat all life-threatening conditions and injuries, urgent care centers can treat an impressive amount of things that never the less go to the hospital Emergency Rooms.

2. They Have More Open Availability

While they may offer service that is comparable to their competitors, the times at which they offer that service definitely is not comparable. Urgent care centers offer service that is much more available to the typical patient; after all, of all primary care doctors in the United States, only twenty nine percent of them offer any sort of after-hours coverage. Roughly one billion colds afflict Americans each year at the least convenient times, so doesn’t it only make sense that a health care provider be available when you need them? Those diseases and injuries hardly come on a nine-to-five schedule. That is why these immediate care centers have walk in doctors and walk in medical clinics available 24 hours a day!

3. Their Service is More Convenient

On the note of more convenient hours, urgent care facilities offer more convenient care to begin with even when both providers are available. Oftentimes patients must struggle to find a pharmacy on their own time to fill the prescription a doctor may give them. This is an unnecessary step in the medical care process, as urgent care centers have discovered. That is why, in some states where it is legal to do so, urgent care centers offer a point-of-care system for dispensing their prescriptions. This essentially means that a patient can receive his or her prescriptions before they even set foot outside of the urgent care facility. What do you think of these centers? Read more.