When Should You Use Urgent Care Centers In the Area?
UPDATED 6/25/2020
You probably have noticed quite a few urgent care centers in the area and may have wondered exactly what services they have to offer. The urgent care centers in the area are like a cross between an emergency room and your family doctor. The benefits of urgent care centers are immediate health care service without having to go to an emergency room. There are urgent care centers open today and ready to treat your ailments. Urgent care healthcare can help in cases of minor accidents and injuries, or if a sudden illness is keeping you up at night. If you feel you need medical attention, but feel it is not so serious to require emergency room services, Urgent care healthcare can be right for you.
Like the name suggests urgent care centers in the area are there to provide urgent care healthcare, that is care when you need it the most, but that is not the only care you can get at the urgent care centers in the area.
Define Emergency Care
What do urgent care centers do? A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they have to have had some serious urgent injury to take advantage of the services at an urgent care clinic. The fact is, of course, you can get urgent foot injury treatment after dropping something heavy on your foot, but you can also get things done like a sports physical for school or a job physical. The benefits of urgent care centers are their flexibility. The staff can treat injury as well as illness. The services at urgent care centers vary depending on location, however minor injury and illness can be covered at all.
In other words, the need for urgent care does not necessarily mean you just had a car accident that requires auto repair and some human body repair. Let’s say you have a family doctor but they are not open on the weekends or after hours and you have sore throat with a fever. This is a perfect example of when to see urgent care. Getting care started as soon as possible can mean shortening the duration of the strep throat or flu. You can head over to one of the urgent care centers in the area to get a prescription for antibiotics, have diagnostic testing done, and get on the road to recovery. There are urgent care centers open today, whenever today is. Afterhours lifecare can literally be a lifesaver in some situations.
Another good example is when you suspect a back injury from heavy lifting at work or a fall at the grocery store, and all the chiropractors are closed. A quick trip to one of the urgent care centers in the area can help to pinpoint whether it is a skeletal injury or a muscular injury. It can help you have peace of mind knowing what is going on with your back. Of course, it is also helpful to have a paper trail of treatment if you need to hire a back injury attorney down the line because your job is fighting you on compensation for that back injury you had at work. Expert urgent care can quickly address issues like a work injury.
Urgent care does not have a lot to do with the injury or the illness and everything to do with getting the medical attention that you need when you need it. The services at urgent care centers are available at convenient hours so any injury or illness can be treated proactively. Personal injury lawyers often have a tougher job ahead of them when their client did not want to wait the 8 hours at the emergency room immediately following a car accident. The urgent care centers in the area are a great alternative to the local hospital’s emergency room and the long waits. There are many cases where getting immediate care and documenting that care is vital. Ask any bicycle accident attorney about the value of documenting your injuries. The cost to visit urgent care will be minor compared to what you may have to pay if a court determines your claim to injury is suspicious.
It is true that personal injury lawyers are big fans of urgent care centers. Their clients are seen quickly and the ball can get rolling on documenting the injuries right after an accident without putting their clients out by having to wait in an overcrowded emergency room. Do not let an attorney determine when to see urgent care. Look for care soon as your injury is noticed, determine any next steps that should be taken legally after you are stabilized and thinking clearly.
Let’s Talk Wait Times
Here is a scenario, you wake up with a stuffy nose, sore throat, and generally feel not well. Your doctors office is closed, or worse yet you do not have health insurance. You have two options, you can go and sit in the ER at your local hospital and run the risk of sitting there for four plus hours, absorb a tremendous emergency room bill, or you can find one of the urgent care centers open today. At the urgent care centers, the wait time is substantially shorter than the ER up to 3.5 hours shorter. They take cash patients, and you do not have to worry about racking up all those extra charges. So why urgent care? Time and money. Both are important to you and both are respected.
If you are in a hurry (who isn’t when they are not feeling well) heading to the urgent care centers make the most sense. You can get much of the same services at the urgent care centers in the area that you can find at the emergency room without all the hassle of having to wait. The benefits of urgent care centers is the fast turnaround.
What Can You Be Seen For At the Urgent Care Centers?
There is a literal litany of services at urgent care centers, you will be able to receive treatment for many illnesses and injuries including:
- Common ailments such as cold, flu symptoms, urinary tract infection symptoms, women’s health concerns, and more. Children can be seen for a wide range of common childhood illnesses.
- Work injuries, car accident injuries, sports injuries, cuts, sprains, breaks, and bruises.
- Work physicals, physicals for schools, sports physicals, and other check ups.
When you need medical care quick because personal home care is just not taking care of the problem, and you do not want to sit in the ER for hours and hours, the expert urgent care at an urgent care center is the place to get it. Home health care for a wide range of illnesses may not be enough. For example, a sore throat can be a bacterial infection that can rage out of control by the time the doctor’s office opens up on Monday. You can go to the urgent care centers in the area have a strep test done right on the spot and leave with a prescription for antibiotics on Friday evening, by Monday morning when the doctor is back open, you will feel better. Is there a better reason why urgent care than knowing you’ll feel better days earlier?
You do not have to drag yourself to the emergency room and wait for what feels like forever ot get the care that you need. You can save time and get quality care right at the urgent care center. So what does urgent care provide? Peace of mind more than anything else.
It’s a Cost Savings
More people wind up in bankruptcy court because of unpaid medical bills than any other reason. Studies have shown time and time again that hospital bills for emergency care is grossly inflated. For example, a simple Tylenol pain reliever that you can buy over the counter, when doled out in the ER costs about $35.
All of the pricing in the ER is inflated. The cost of every procedure, every test, and every treatment can cost you as much as 10 times what it will cost you in the urgent care center. Typically, the urgent care center has very fair pricing options for people that are uninsured or underinsured. The cost to visit urgent care is very fair, even if you are not insured.
Some health insurance will cover the entire visit to an urgent care center just to encourage their insured members to go to the urgent care instead of the ER. The cost savings can be significant. If you do not have insurance you pay one flat fee to see the medical provider and can even do testing ala carte to help you save more money. If you have health insurance the cost to visit urgent care is negligible.
High Quality Health Care
Just because you pay less, have to wait less, and find the care more convenient it does not mean that you are not getting top notch care. A visit to the urgent care centers in the area means you are being seen by medical professionals that are highly trained and experienced. They are prepared to deliver the best in care to you and your family and help you quickly get back on the road to wellness.
You can get the personalized care that you need to start feeling well without all the other stressors that go together with a ER visit. This can be the easiest way to get the health care that you need.
A Word About Accident Victims and Urgent Care
Let’s say you are in a moderate car accident, that means you likely sustained some injuries but they are not life threatening. The ambulance arrives but you refuse to get in, you have kids to get home to, and you really do not want to spend most of the night being wheeled around an overburdened emergency room, but you do need to get medical attention.
You can have a friend or a family member take you to the local urgent care to get checked out. The diagnosis you get from the urgent care medical professional is just as valid with the insurance company as a diagnosis you would get by sitting for six hours or more at the hospital.
The urgent care center can write you any referrals for follow up with any specialists that they recommend you see. They can provide documented proof of your injuries if needed in court. Not getting medical attention after a car accident, slip and fall accident, or work injury is a very bad idea.
Getting checked out even if you do not feel like anything is wrong is important to your accident claim. Going to your local urgent care can be quick, easy, and highly informative. Make sure you get checked out.
COVID 19 And Medical Care
The COVID outbreak has put an entirely new twist on getting medical care when you need it. A lot of people are really weighing out their options when it comes to seeking medical treatment at the hospital or being exposed to COVID 19.
Most every hospital in the country has seen their fair share of COVID patients. Most hospitals currently have COVID 19 patients admitted. It can be a very scary time to walk into a hospital emergency room. You could unwittingly expose yourself to a carrier or a patient that is sitting in the emergency room that took someone to the hospital to be admitted for Covid.
Urgent care centers in the area serve a much smaller population than the hospital does, which can mean a reduced risk of being in a space where a COVID patient has been. It can also mean that monitoring patients as they arrive at the urgent care can be more effective because there are less people to keep up with.
Urgent cares have the advantage of having more control over the space than larger hospitals do. They have smaller staff which means less people to be infected. They can keep up on the sanitation practices better because of the smaller sizes they are dealing with.
If COVID contamination is a concern for you, and it should be, getting medical care at the urgent care may be the better choice to put your mind at ease. Urgent care centers have very strict infectious control guidelines in place and have an easier time of enforcing those guidelines. During these troubling times, one of the benefits of urgent care centers is leaving emergency rooms free to address more serious problems. If you’re asking “why urgent care instead of the emergency room” think about the number of people out there devastated by COVID 19. If you can get the same expert urgent care elsewhere, why wouldn’t you?
So What Does Urgent Care Provide?
Whether you have been in a car accident, slipped at the grocery store, or woke up feeling lousy, your local urgent care is the perfect place to get care. You don’t need to define emergency care to know where to get it. If you need medical attention, and you need it right away head to your local urgent care and enjoy these benefits:
- Generous extended hours
- Clean modern facilities with the latest diagnostic technology on site
- Friendly highly qualified staff
Most urgent care centers are open on the weekends and late into the evenings to ensure health care is available when you need it the most. They are usually open 7 days a week and on holidays as well so you never have to go with out medical attention.
So what does urgent care provide? The facilities are typically outfitted with onsite diagnostic equipment like Xray machines, and lab facilities. The waiting areas are comfortable and of course, you will not have to sit for long waiting.
You can get the medical care that you deserve from a highly qualified staff that moves with compassion. If they cannot meet your needs and you need further testing they will refer you to the provider that can.
The urgent care centers in the area will work hard to ensure that your condition or injury is stabilized and you get the treatments that you need to start feeling better. An early start with any illness is the best way to get better quickly. The next time you need medical attention and you just to do not want to waste time waiting around, go find urgent care centers open today, one visit and it will be your go-to spot for medical care quickly for the whole family.