For many people, a walk in clinic can provide a great way to get fast and efficient medical treatment here in the United States. Such a walk in clinic has become incredibly commonplace over the last few years as well, as more and more urgent care centers spring up all over the country. As a matter of fact, it’s estimated that as many as three million different people will visit various urgent care centers on a weekly basis – and that up to 20,000 doctors and other qualified medical professional treat them, a number that certainly continues to grow on a yearly basis.

For many people, seeking treatment at the typical walk in clinic is a much better alternative to the traditional doctor’s office. After all, doctor’s offices typically require you to have some type of medical insurance, which is unfortunately not something that everyone has access to here in the United States. In addition to this, doctor’s offices are usually closed early in the morning, late into the evening, and on all weekends and many holidays. For people who develop a medical concern during one of these periods, finding medical care can certainly prove to be difficult.

In addition to this, many people view the typical walk in clinic or urgent care location as an alternative to the emergency room as well, the place where many people would originally go when faced with the problems discussed in the paragraph above. Unfortunately, there are a number of detriments to seeking medical care in any given emergency room setting. For instance, the typical emergency room is often very busy, meaning that the typical non-emergent case will spend at least an hour waiting for medical attention, if not even more than that. In addition to this, many people find that emergency rooms, though they will take patients even if they do not have insurance, are prohibitively expensive. These emergency room trips can sometimes cost upwards of $1,000 – and sometimes considerably more than that.

Fortunately, the typical walk in clinic or urgent care center provides a viable alternative to both traditional general care practitioner’s offices and emergency rooms alike. For starters, the average urgent care center or walk in clinic will be open every single day of the week, with data even backing this up, showing that of all walk in clinics and urgent care locations, at least 85% of them have hours open every single day, and sometimes even on major holidays as well. Though not all walk in clinics and urgent care centers will be open all hours of the day, some will, a large enough percentage of them to be notable and useful information for many people seeking out affordable and convenient medical care all throughout the United States.

And urgent care locations can treat a wide variety of conditions, with less than 5% of all cases seen in the typical walk in clinic needing to be transferred to the nearest emergency room at any point. In fact, the typical walk in clinic location will even be able to provide fracture care, as up to 80% of all urgent care centers have the tools and the doctors with the know how to do so. Ankle sprains, the fracture’s less severe cousin, are also commonly seen in any given walk in clinic – this only really makes sense, after all, as up to 25,000 ankle sprains of varying severity happen every single day here in the United States alone, let alone in any other part of the world.

Even routine care can be provided at many a walk in clinic, such as in the form of the flu vaccination. Getting a flu vaccination is something that everyone who is able to should very much pursue, as the flu can be a very serious illness and should not be taken lightly under any circumstances. Fortunately, getting your flu shot is relatively easy, and typically only requires a few minutes out of your day. In addition to this, the vast majority of these vaccine recipients will not have any negative side effect.