Urgent care centers are a popular model of health care — and one of the fastest growing — because they are less expensive than the emergency room and a patient can be seen much more quickly than they would at their primary care physician’s office. Another benefit that comes with the urgent care model is the availability of routine testing and procedures, including sexually transmitted disease testing.
If you’re sexually active, you should get STD testing often. Some STDs can take years to prevent themselves, so you might not even know that you have been infected. Local STD testing is a good way to make sure that you’re still healthy. Making sure that you’re safe is the only way to ensure that you are not infecting any of your partners or potential partners.
Getting an STD test can be a source of anxiety and is a private matter, so you may not want to go to your regular doctor to get it done. You can still go to your regular doctor, but getting tested at an urgent care center offers more privacy than you would get there.
Urgent care clinics in some states can dispense medications as well. If you do find that you’ve contracted a sexually transmitted disease or related infection, you don’t have to make another stop. You can get tested and treated in one fell swoop. To learn more, read this.
