As more urgent care centers begin popping up across the country, many people have begun wondering: Is there really any difference between the emergency room and urgent care services? And what’s so special about urgent care clinics, anyway?
First off, there is a pretty important difference between urgent care and a hospital department. Urgent care centers are generally equipped to handle regular medical check-ups and treatments like you’d find at a normal physician’s office, but they can also handle minor emergencies that aren’t life-threatening. Minor fractures, burns, and sprains are all easy to treat at an urgent care facility.
So onto the next question — what’s the benefit in going to urgent care if it’s the same stuff you can find at a doctor’s office and at a hospital ER?
For starters, you’ll spend a lot less money and a lot less time at an urgent care center than you would at a hospital emergency room. In fact, you could end up saving hundreds of dollars and hours of your time if you seek medical treatment at an urgent care clinic instead of at a hospital. And while less than one-third of doctors have any kind of after-hours services, urgent care centers are typically open for extended hours and even seven days a week. Best of all, you don’t have to make an appointment in order to be seen by a medical professional. These facilities are all fully staffed with doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, and other medical professionals.
It’s true that an urgent care clinic won’t always be a good substitution for seeing your regular doctor, and in the case of a serious medical emergency, it’s always recommended that you go straight to the nearest emergency room. But for everything else in between, urgent care centers really do provide some of the most valuable medical services today.
