Why You Should Choose Urgent Care over Emergency Room Visits

Urgent care clinics are often more effective in treating patients after normal primary physician hours than emergency rooms are. Since primary care doctors are often available only on weekdays during normal business hours, many people choose to go to the emergency room for broken bones and fractures, back pain, colds, dizziness, infections, or other conditions that are perceived as “emergencies.”

Emergency care departments often don’t admit patients to the hospital, however. Many of these conditions are not seen as imperative enough to warrant admission. Often, people don’t know that there are other after-hours options available. Since some people are unable to schedule doctor appointments during the work week for bothersome ailments, they show up to the emergency room, where the order in which you’re seen is based on priority, not first come, first serve.

People without health insurance often avoid going to see the doctor for financial reasons. When medical conditions are neglected, they worsen. By the time an ailment becomes unbearable, these individuals will sometimes go to the emergency room.

These emergency room care bills are much higher than other care options that provide similar services, and can cause severe financial setbacks.

Urgent care facilities provide the same emergency care as hospital medical clinics do, but with more specialized attention and lower prices.

Urgent care often functions as the midway point between primary and emergency care, offering many of the same treatment options as both types of medical clinics.

Local doctors and other medical professionals staff urgent care centers and can perform simple physicals, as well as laboratory testing, x-rays, and, in some cases, more specialized care, like physical therapy.

The Urgent Care Association of America reports that 3 million people visit urgent care centers every week. Many of these people would not have received proper care had it not been for urgent care. Most urgent care centers are open seven days per week, with extended hours to allow for necessary care on the patient’s schedule, not the business’. Most patients at urgentcare will be seen within 15 minutes of arrival, with very few patient waiting over an hour’s time. Urgent care waits are conducted on a first come, first serve basis, much different than the emergency rooms. Most urgent care centers are staffed with a physician at all times, but if not, a qualified mid-care provider is available.

If you find yourself in need of care, but don’t think you are sick enough for an emergency room visit, visit your local urgent care location.