Healthcare is important, we all know that. From wellness checks to healthcare for injuries and sudden illnesses (both of which have the potential to be quite severe, depending on the circumstances), there are many situations in which proper healthcare is incredibly essential. However, getting healthcare is not always the easiest.
For instance, finding the right place to seek healthcare on the weekend or before and after regular working hours can be a tricky thing, and many people think that the emergency room is their only option. And the emergency room is far from the ideal place to seek healthcare and medical treatments unless you really and truly have a medical emergency. The wait time is long – on average, fifty eight minutes – and the costs astronomical, with most people walking out owing at least one thousand dollars, if not even more. But where else can you go to get the healthcare you are in need of from qualified medical professionals?
Fortunately, urgent care locations have become more popular and more prevalent than ever before, with up to three million people visiting various urgent care locations throughout the country over the course of just one week. In the year of 2016 alone, the typical urgent care center got as many as fifteen thousand patient visits, a number that has only increased in the years that have transpired since. Nowadays, fifty visitors per day is common, with around three patients for each hour (though this number can vary quite a bit depending on time of day and the urgent care center in question).
In addition to the growing prevalence of urgent care centers throughout the country, urgent care centers have also been able to boast impressive wait times. In fact, more than ninety percent of all urgent care locations currently have an average wait time that is at or below thirty minutes. And more than half of all urgent care locations (around sixty percent of them, to be more precise) boast average wait times of only around fifteen minutes (and in some cases, even less). This means that those looking for quick healthcare are likely to find the right place in their local urgent care location.
And urgent care centers can provide a wider variety of healthcare than people realize as well. In fact, only around three percent of people even need to be transferred from an urgent care center to a hospital in order to receive more advanced care. However, up to sixty five percent of emergency room patients, it has been found, could have easily been treated in an urgent care center instead, a choice that likely would have saved the patients in question a great deal of time as well as money.
For instance, urgent care centers overwhelmingly provide diagnosis and treatment for fractures, something that can be seen in up to eighty percent of them, a number that is only likely to grow in the years that are to come. In addition to this, other types of wound repair can be performed, from basic bandaging to even the giving of stitches by the medical professional at the urgent care center. So too can any number of diagnostic tests.
Illnesses are also commonly treated in urgent care centers throughout the country, with up to seventy percent of all urgent care locations even able to offer IV fluids in cases of significant dehydration in a sick person, something that many illnesses will put you at risk for. Antibiotics can also be prescribed at any urgent care location, and can be used to treat common ailments like ear infections (commonly seen in very young children) and UTIs (urinary tract infections, which are commonly seen in women, particularly those who are sexually active).
Being able to get fast and efficient treatment is a game changer for many people, some of whom might simply otherwise avoid getting the healthcare that they need, especially if they are not easily able to take off of work to go in and see their primary care or family doctor. Urgent care locations provide a viable alternative for healthcare, one that costs less and is highly effective.
