What Urgent Care Can Treat
Have you seen an urgent care facility open up near you? If you have ever wondered what these clinics are all about, read on to learn what they can treat and when they’re the best choice.
What Urgent Care Treats
A walk in clinic is the perfect place to get fast, convenient, and affordable care for non-life threatening injuries or sicknesses. Almost three million patients visit an urgent care center every week, according to the Urgent Care Association of America. The most common issues treated in 2012 were upper respiratory conditions and wound repair, but there are a lot of things you can get treatment for at a walk-in clinic of this type.
Every day, 25,000 ankles get sprained across the United States: a great reason to see an urgent care medical care professional. Every year Americans catch a billion colds, and when you need help getting over yours, head to a walk-in medical clinic. Doctors have 8.1 million visits every year from people with urinary tract infections, and these, too, can be treated at these convenient clinics. Four out of every five urgent care clinics can deal with fractures, and many are equipped to provide x-rays. Poison ivy reactions, flu treatments, ear infections, diarrhea, nosebleeds, sports injuries: these are just some of the conditions your local urgent care can help with.
When Urgent Care is the Right Choice
The local medical clinic is an alternative to both the doctor’s office and the emergency room. Unlike a doctor’s office, there’s no need to make an advance appointment, though some centers are happy for you to do so if you wish, and many clinics are open after hours and even on the weekends.
In contrast to an emergency room, urgent care clinics can provide faster, cheaper service. Emergency rooms are designed to provide treatment for life-threatening injuries and illnesses, so when you go there for a sore throat or a minor laceration you can sit in the waiting room for a very long time while graver injuries get treated before yours. An urgent care center is designed to treat sore throats, minor lacerations, and similar injuries, so there’s no long wait involved.
Walk-in clinics don’t need to keep the same level of facilities and staff that a hospital emergency room must have ready to go at all times, which keeps down costs. This means the average visit to a clinic will be far cheaper than going to the emergency room.
For many of the medical needs that arise in life, a walk in clinic is the perfect answer. If you have an illness or injury that is not life-threatening yet needs medical attention, try your local walk-in clinic next time.
