When you’re looking for medical care that fits within your schedule, consider your local urgent care center. An urgent care center is a great place for those who do not have access to other forms of medical care, such as a primary care practitioner or a family doctor. For a great many people, going to a doctor during the day, when doctor’s offices are typical open, is not feasible, as they are not able to take off work to do so. In some cases, they might not even have the transportation to schedule an appointment with local doctors during these hours.
The average urgent care center provides a truly viable alternative for just about everyone. For one thing, the vast majority of all urgent care locations – nearly 90% of them – are open each and every day of the week. In addition to this, many are open earlier in the morning and will stay open later into the evening than a traditional doctor’s office would. And the 24 hour urgent care center is becoming more and more common. It’s no wonder that up to three million people will seek the services of their local urgent care center over the duration of the typical week, a number that is only continuing to increase as the years pass on.
But what exactly are these services that the urgent care center in your area can offer? The answer is a multi faceted one, as the average urgent care center offers quite the huge array of services indeed. For instance, those seeking medical help for an injury is something that is commonly seen – and commonly able to treat – in any given urgent care center. In fact, wound repair is the most common procedure performed at any given urgent care center in the United States (and respiratory infections make up the most common illnesses treated). And all kinds of wound repair and injury treatment is seen.
For instance, ankle sprains are widely common in the United States, as it is an easy injury to sustain, with more than three quarters of all ankle sprains originated from an inward rolling of the ankle. Over the course of just one day, it is not uncommon for up to 25,000 of these sprains to take place. And while sometimes these sprains will not necessarily be in need of medical treatment, they will sometimes need to be assessed to rule out a potential fracture or even a tear of a ligament or tendon located in that area of the body. And the average urgent care facility will be more than able to treat a fracture, so long as it is relatively minor. In fact, more than three quarters of all urgent care locations found in this country can provide fracture care and diagnosis.
But why should you go to an urgent care facility instead of to your local emergency room. For one thing, a typical urgent care facility will be more than equipped to deal with the issues that you present with, as up to 97% of all cases that first go to an urgent care facility will be able to be treated there as well. On the other hand, however, up to 65% of all ER visitors could have instead visited a local urgent care facility instead. And visiting an urgent care facility is something that is likely to save time and money alike.
When you go to the average urgent care facility, you can expect to get in and out in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, more than 90% of all urgent care clinics are able to get to each patient in no more than an average half of an hour. In more than half of all such walk in clinics the average waiting time for seeing a doctor is even less – only just 15 minutes or even lower. In the typical ER, however, the average wait time is about an hour, if not even longer than this. Therefore, going to an urgent care facility is going to be in your best interests for any minor medical condition.
