Need After Hours Doctor Care?
Assessing your situation to determine what is urgent care can save you both time and money. By skipping the emergency room for urgent care providers, you can get timely medical care at a walk in clinic. In fact, over 80% of urgent care patients have a wait of 15 minutes or less according to the Urgent Care Association of America. By visiting an urgent care nearby, you can save significant inconvenience from the emergency room for minor injuries, even when your doctor is closed.
For most minor illnesses and minor health issues, you can take advantage of the after hours urgent care facilities near you to treat your minor medical emergencies. The convenience of being able to see a doctor with very little or zero advance notice is huge when you are beginning to suffer the symptoms of something like the flu or an irritable cold. So if your doctor is not open, and these issues are not bad enough for emergency room care, you can find urgent care facilities rather than suffer uncomfortably while waiting for the doctor to open.
It is estimated that more than one third of all U.S. emergency room visits could have been taken care of faster and more affordably in an after hours clinic. For one, the clinics have much less overhead to take care of and can see you in a timely and affordable visit. Generally, urgent care nearby has the diagnostic equipment for general lab work, xrays or testing. For sprains or suspected breaks, you can save hours by visiting urgent care versus the emergency room.
One of the other advantages of using an urgent care facility is the flexibility of scheduling various minor things, such as vaccinations and physicals. What is urgent care if it is not accessible and able to serve a number of different health issues. For those that need a flu shot annually, you may face a wait if you schedule it with your primary care physician, but the doctors at the urgent care facility can provide them almost immediately. Also, things like childrens yearly sports physicals can be obtained relatively quickly.
While there are generally sufficient facilities for urgent care nearby, there is still an ongoing expansion. The Urgent Care Association of America estimates another 9,000 urgent care facilities are in position to expand. That means that your ability to get after hours care or minor emergency treatment will only get better as the facilities grow in number throughout the U.S. Knowing what is urgent care worthy can greatly improve your treatment time as you seek quick solutions. Research more here.
