Why Urgent Care Centers Are More Popular Than Ever
Urgent care locations have sprung up all throughout the United States, now serving more than three million different people throughout the course of just one single week. In order to meet this patient load, there are now even more than 20,000 doctors and other such medical professionals employed at such urgent care locations as well. After all, the breadth of care offered at urgent care locations is broader than ever before.
For one thing, various injuries can be treated at most urgent care locations. With up to 80% of all urgent care clinics able to both diagnose and treat minor fractures, more and more people are coming to urgent care clinics for even more serious injuries. Stitches, for example, can also be found at most urgent care locations. Of course, more minor injuries are commonly seen as well with wound repair the most common medical procedure treated at urgent care locations all throughout the country. Ankle sprains, of which as many as 25,000 will occur in the United States over the course of just one single day, are also popular in any given urgent care setting.
And if you’re sick, going to a walk in clinic is also in your best interests. After all, more respiratory infections are seen in an urgent care location than anything else. Flu cases are also seen in just about all urgent care locations, as up to 20% of the population will contract the flu during the course of a typical season. And while the flu certainly cannot be cured (as it is a virus), it can be treated and assessed at any given urgent care center. If you are worried that you might have the flu, going in for treatment is ideal. If you are afraid that you are becoming dehydrated as the result of any illness, you might even choose to go to urgent care locations for IV fluids, something that many urgent care locations can provide.
Of course, this does not even encompass the full extent of treatments available at urgent care locations. Various skin conditions can also be treated. Sunburn is one of them, and is seen frequently (as you might have already assumed) during the summer months. Skin damage will first begin after 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure, but many people who have even taken preventative methods can find themselves burned if they are not careful enough. If you think your burn is serious, being seen by a doctor at a walk in clinic is a good way to get the problem assessed. After all, it is far better to be safe than to be sorry when it comes to your health.
But why go to an urgent care location instead of elsewhere? As it turns out, urgent care locations offer many benefits. For one thing, they tend to be open every single day of the week – at least 85% of all urgent care locations are. In addition to this, they are frequently open earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon and evening than your typical doctor’s offices will be. And they will sometimes even offer weekend hours. In some cases, urgent care locations will be open around the clock, though this is not the case for every single one – or even the majority of them. And, at least in comparison to the average emergency room bill, paying for your urgent care visit is going to be much more feasible indeed. Ultimately, therefore, going to an urgent care location is well within your best interests when you are searching for medical help for a relatively minor problem.
Of course, it’s also important to note that urgent care locations are able to treat the vast majority of cases that they see, needing to send a scant 3% of all cases to a nearby emergency room. On the other hand, however, up to 60% of all cases seen in the ER could have instead been treated in a walk in health health clinic, something that would have likely saved any patient in question a good deal of time and money alike, two critical factors when looking for medical care.
