What Urgent Care Has to Offer

What Urgent Care Has to Offer

What Is Urgent Care?

Urgent Care centers bridge the gap between doctor’s offices and emergency rooms by providing walk-in care for acute injuries or illnesses. If you’ve had a nonlife-threatening accident, you would normally visit an emergency room. Many symptoms and conditions lead you to the emergency room which has many disadvantages.

At urgent care centers, you can see a provider without an appointment, just as you would at an ER. Plus, urgent care centers typically offer extended hours. If you’re in pain or injured, you should consider an urgent care center over an emergency room. Emergency rooms are crucial in saving lives, however, the wait times and costs are deterring more and more people. In most cases, an urgent care center can handle you medial needs in the same way the emergency room or primary care physician would.

What Do Urgent Care Centers Treat?

Urgent care centers treat a variety of symptoms including but not limited to minor cuts and burns, respiratory issues, x rays, and flu vaccination. Seventy percent of urgent care centers can provide intravenous fluids when needed and four out of five, or eight percent, of urgent care centers, provide fracture care. As urgent care centers continue to expand, they are treating many symptoms and conditions you see in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices. The most common Injuries and Illnesses treated at an Urgent Care are fractures, sprain or strains, whiplash, burns, cuts, and injuries from falls or accidents.

Advantages of Urgent Care

One advantage of visiting urgent care is saving time. An Urgent Care center can keep you from spending hours in a waiting room. According to a survey by The Urgent Care Association of America, 57% of patients wait 15 minutes or less to be seen, and about 80% of all visits are 60 minutes or less and 65% have a physician on-site at all times.

The second benefit of urgent care is the process. Urgent care centers get you in quickly and have the ability to access your medical care record. Approximately 40% of urgent care centers use electronic prescription ordering systems, with substantially larger proportions using computerized systems for viewing lab and imaging results, collecting patient demographics, billing, condition and procedure coding, and clinical notes.

After hours urgent care is another beneficial alternative to the emergency room. More than 66% of urgent care centers open prior to 9:00 am during the week and 90% percent of centers remain open until 7:00 pm or later on weeknights. After hours urgent care is accessible in emergencies when your primary physician is not available. Many don’t require an appointment and are usually open seven days a week until 9 pm or later.

Hospitals are busy places these days and getting seen can be a long, painful process. Find a local urgent care center and consider them instead of the emergency room. Many offer after hours urgent care and can quickly diagnose and prescribe medications if necessary. If you have a primary care physician, and you need after hours urgent care, visit a local care clinic to receive treatment in lew of your doctor.