Have you ever visited urgent care facilities? Do you know when it is okay to skip the emergency room or your normal doctor?s office to opt for after hours urgent care or your community health clinic? When it comes to your health and well-being, you never want to ignore the best option just to take a cheaper option. At the same time, you want to make the best use of your family health care, your time, your money and energy. That means, sometimes it actually is the better option to head to your local walk in health clinic to get treated rather than heading to the emergency room or your family doctor?s office.
So, why would you choose your after hours urgent care over your regular doctor or the emergency room, and what are they qualified to help treat? Keep reading to learn all about the importance of local urgent care facilities throughout the United States.
Urgent care facilities are essential to the United States today for a variety of reasons. For one, they are open at different times than your local doctor?s office. Your doctor?s office may close at five. On top of that, the office may not be open on weekends and holidays. That does not stop you from getting sick or injured, though. People can get sick on any day and at any time of the day. So, it is important to know where the closest urgent care is located so you can get treated after hours, on weekends and on holidays.
Urgent care is a great choice whether you want to use it after hours urgent care or you want to use it to save a little time. While you can make an appointment ahead of time at your local doctor?s office, there is no guarantee they can see you immediately. In fact, you may have to wait a few days or even a week depending on what the appointment is for. When it comes to the emergency room, the likelihood that you will have to wait even longer increases. Statistics show that emergency room wait times range around 58.1 minutes every visit. This was an increase from 46.5 minutes in 2003 to 58.1 minutes in 2009.
When you visit an urgent care facility, you are also likely to save money in comparison to traveling to your local doctor?s office. Now, this varies. You will not save money on every trip to an urgent care, but the possibility does exist that it will be a more affordable option depending on your health insurance and depending on the injury or illness that needs treated. Data reports that you can pay an average of $1,318 per emergency room visit according to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.
This explains why it is important to be able to recognize when it is best to head to the emergency room, when to head to the urgent care, and when to schedule an appointment at your local doctor?s office. If it is a life-and-death situation, definitely go straight to the emergency room. If you would like to be treated for an illness or injury the day of, after hours urgent care may be able to handle your situation. You will have to use your discretion to decide whether or not it is emergent or just something you would like assessed by a medical profession at the urgent care.
Urgent care facilities can handle a wide range of issues from addressing illnesses like dementia and memory loss, to assessing those who have sun damage to dealing with issues like depression. Since rates of depression can range from three to 13.5 percent in elderly people alone, it is important to not ignore signs of depression and to head to urgent care if necessary.
By 2025, it is predicted that we will need around 52,000 more primary care physicians in the United States alone to keep up with our demands on the healthcare system. Urgent care facilities may be the answer to this problem. Let us know in the comments if you have ever used urgent care.
