If you’re looking to get comprehensive healthcare, consider going to a local urgent care center in your area. Fortunately, the number of urgent care centers has grown considerably here in the United States, and there are now more than 7,000 urgent care locations all throughout the United States. For many people, access to an urgent care location is one of the most reliable ways that they can get healthcare, especially during hours when typical doctor’s offices are not open. However, healthcare can be provided to those even without healthcare insurance when the necessary medical attention is sought from a walk in clinic.

And urgent care centers provide, in many different ways, a viable alternative for healthcare than the local emergency room. After all, the typical emergency room is not a place you want to end up, at least if you can avoid it. If you don’t present an emergent medical concern, you’ll likely be waiting to see a doctor or even just a nurse for quite some time – after all, the average wait time for any emergency room in this country now reaches at least one hour, if not even longer than that. In addition to this, you’ll likely spend a number of hours in the emergency room even after you have been taken back to a room.

Urgent care centers, on the other hand, provide a completely different experience. In fact, the data that has been gathered on the subject more than backs up this claim, showing that more than 90% of all urgent care locations in this country boast wait times of less than half of an hour – and certainly no more than that. In as many as 60% of all urgent care centers found throughout the United States, the average wait time has even been able to be lowered down to a mere half of an hour, making urgent care locations fast and efficient, to say the least. The typical patient is able to get in, get the healthcare that they are in need of, and get out – all within the span of time of just one single hour.

In addition to this, urgent care centers can provide more comprehensive healthcare services than many people realize. While hospital emergency rooms are certainly the places to go for actual medical emergencies, urgent care centers can handle cases of a relatively serious nature with ease. In fact, less than 5% of all cases seen first in an emergency room will need to be transferred to a hospital for the better resources that it can provide. Conversely, however, it is has been found that as much as 65% of all cases seen by hospitals could have instead received thorough treatment in the nearest walk in clinic or urgent care location.

For instance, it has been found that up to 80% of all urgent care centers – more than three quarters of them – can provide both diagnosis and treatment for fractures, provided that these fractures are not too overly complex. In addition to this, it has also been discovered that seven urgent care locations out of every ten can provide IV fluids when they are necessary, preventing patients who are simply dehydrated from needing to pay the costs of receiving an IV in any given hospital. For while urgent care centers certainly do still cost money, they will typically cost far less than seeking healthcare services from a local emergency room instead.

Of course, urgent care locations all throughout the country will be able to treat cases of a much lesser severity as well. For instance, the common cold is likely to be seen in many urgent care centers throughout the United States, as there are up to one billion cases of such throughout the cold and flu season. Flu shots can typically also be obtained at local urgent care locations, and getting a flu shot before flu season really starts is a great way to stay healthy – or as healthy as is really manageable and possible.