Here in the United States, urgent care centers of all kinds have spread from one end of the country to the next. By the year of 2016, there were already well over 7,000 of them. Of course, this number has only continued to climb in the nearly half of a decade that has transpired since. This means that urgent care clinics are able to serve as many as three million people over the course of a single week, something that requires as many as 20,000 doctors on staff at all times.
And urgent care locations are ideal for a number of different reasons. For one thing, the waiting time associated with these urgent care clinics is quite low indeed. If you go to any given walk in clinic, in fact, you can expect not to wait for longer than a mere half of an hour. And up to 70% of all walk in urgent care centers actually only have wait times of a mere 20 minutes. Therefore, going to a walk-in medical care clinic will save you a great deal of time in comparison to going to a local emergency room, so long as the medical issue in place is a relatively minor one.
But walk in clinics can treat a wider variety of health concerns than you might think. For instance, walk in clinics typically have the capability to provide minor fracture treatment. This minor fracture treatment (and diagnosis) can actually be obtained at up to 80% of all walk-in clinics found here in the United States. And with up to 25,000 ankle sprain cases occurring every day, a great many doctors at a walk-in medical clinic will need to utilize such services to rule out the potential of an ankle sprain. Ruling out a fracture will make treating a sprained ankle all the easier.
Various skin conditions can also be treated in the average multicare urgent care clinic. For instance, cases of sunburn will be frequently seen in any walk in health care clinic. This is because a sunburn is much easier to get than many people even realize, with your sun beginning to accrue damage after only just 15 minutes or so of sun exposure. And when you’re out having fun in the hot sun, this damage can escalate more quickly than you might think.
Poison ivy, another skin condition, can also be given treatment in the typical urgent care center. Poison ivy is, after all, very common indeed. It’s located in every single state that makes up the continental United States and will cause an allergic reaction in up to 85% of the American population. And while there is no necessarily a cure for poison ivy, there are treatments that can help to mitigate, even just somewhat, the pain of the condition until it eventually goes away.
In addition to this, urgent care clinics are known for treating various illnesses as well. Basic infections can easily be given a course of antibiotics in your typical multicare urgent care clinic. After all, there are many common infections that one might get. The urinary tract infection (UTI) alone is diagnosed more than eight million times over the course of just one single year. And infections like ear infections and strep throat are also commonplace.
Cases of the flu can also be diagnosed in an urgent care location. After all, the flu is likely to impact as much as 20% of the population during a particularly bad flu year (and at least 5% of the population even during a more mild flu season). If you suspect you have the flu, you should go to a walk in clinic as soon as possible. If you catch your illness early on, you will be able to take an antiviral. Being able to take an antiviral means that you might be able to reduce your illness by a couple days. You also lessen your chances of developing a secondary infection or serious complication. Ultimately, therefore, taking an antiviral medication might even end up saving your life.
At the end of the day, urgent care centers matter more than ever here in the United States.
