As winter has fully taken hold, so do the numbers of common illnesses and injuries. For many people, getting an appointment to see their general care practitioner can seem next to impossible. Doctors schedules don’t always align with their patients, and many patients cannot afford the time off of work. Thankfully, urgent care and walk in clinics can provide doctors and medical treatment to those who need them.

A walk in clinic is often open seven days of the week, making it a more widely accessible way to seek out medical care. And urgent cares have certainly become widely popular – over 20,000 doctors choose to practice at an urgent care and up to 3 million patients visit walk in clinics in the United States alone every single week.

So what should you go to a walk-in medical clinic for, as opposed to an emergency room or general care practitioner’s office? Well, you can go to a walk in urgent care for most things. Four out of five urgent care centers even have the means to diagnose and treat fractures. In fact, almost half of all emergency room visits could have adequately and efficiently been treated at an urgent care location.

also a good idea to be seen at an urgent care facility if you have a cold that won’t go away. If it’s something more serious, like the flu, which between 5 and 20% of the United States population gets every year, it’s important to know what steps to take to care for yourself. Upper respiratory infections are often frequently diagnosed in walk-in clinics, and can be more challenging to treat than a common cold. Though your illness is more likely than not just a cold – as cold are overwhelmingly common, with over a billion United States inhabitants contracting at least one in a year – it’s still important to seek out a diagnosis in an efficient and cost effective way.

Urgent care centers can also provide diagnoses and treatments of urinary tract infections, a common condition affecting millions every year. Doctors can treat ankle sprains, fractured bones, and even poison ivy in an urgent care setting. Really, whatever can be treated at a traditional doctor’s office can be treated at an urgent care facility. Urgent care facilities provide accessibility to medical treatment that might not otherwise exist.