Have you seen new urgent care locations popping up in your neighborhood? You may wonder what these new offices are all about. Are they an emergency room complete with an emergency room nurse or two and the equipment to handle emergencies? Are they more like your normal pediatrician?s office? Maybe you have not gone inside one yet simply because you are not sure what the benefit are to one of these urgent cares. These recent additions to your city may be your new go-to when it comes to unexpected illnesses and injuries once you learn all about their benefits.
Interested in learning more about walk in health clinics and reasons your should opt for these locations over other choices? Keep reading for more information about how urgent cares blend together the best of emergency rooms with your normal doctor?s office.
4 Things to Know About Urgent Care Walk in Clinics
In order to know why you should you visit an urgent care, you should probably learn a little bit of information about what these places are. They aren?t quite an emergency room but they also are far from your regular doctor?s office. In fact, they blend together some of the best parts of each of these other options. Here are four things you should know about walk in clinics before using one.
1. Frequently visited by patients
Urgent cares are steadily getting more and more visits by patients with each passing week. Even though some may be confused as to why they should choose an urgent care over their regular doctor?s office, many people are catching on to the various benefits of these walk in clinics. According to the Urgent Care Association of America, more than 3 million people are currently visiting urgent cares every single week in the United States. With so many patients visiting them, it is no surprise that more and more doctors are specializing in this field, too. There are around 20,000 physicians who have this specialty in Urgent Care Medicine today. The more patients continue to choose these types of medical offices, the more doctors will continue to choose this as their speciality in order to provide care to those in need.
2. Open seven days a week
Like an emergency room, the majority of urgent cares are open seven days a week. To be more specific, around 85% of walk in clinics you can find will be open, even on the weekends. While there more be more than one emergency room nurse running around the emergency room, you can expect to find comparable nurses at urgent cares whenever they open.
3. Can handle illnesses
When you suddenly get sick after normal working hours or on the weekend, you do not have to rush off to visit an emergency room nurse at a hospital. Instead, you can opt to first visit a walk in urgent care clinic to get an assessment. That way, you can save yourself some time and money by avoiding the emergency room unless a medical professional feels it is necessary for you to head to the hospital. Urgent cares most commonly diagnose upper respiratory conditions in patients.
4. Can handle injuries
Just like illnesses, urgent cares are capable of handling a variety of injuries sustained. You don?t need an emergency room nurse or hours of waiting at your primary doctor to have an injury assessed by a medical professional. If you choose to go to an urgent care location, you can head in without an appointment and be seen by a doctor in less than an hour on most occasions. Currently, one of the most common injuries urgent care centers handle is fracture care. 80% of those locations in the United States can assess fractures. On top of that, urgent cares frequently deal with other injuries like ankle sprains which more than 25,000 Americans suffer from on a daily basis.
Are you going to visit an urgent care location for your next injury or illness? Why would you choose these clinics over your normal doctor’s office? Let us know in the comments about your experience.