The Secrets Of Success For Urgent Care Centers

Unlike a family General Practitioner (GP), a walk-in clinic is available to provide medical services when you actually need them. We are certainly not talking about life threatening conditions as for those you should rush to the nearest medical facility providing emergency services. Scheduled medical consulting is another matter entirely perhaps best suited for consultations of a chronic problem. During this type of treatment, a specialist has to study the patient consistently over many weeks and months to monitor their health and ever changing prescriptions.

We’re going to focus on urgent medical care services, which is the delivery of walk-in care in a medical facility outside of a regular hospital. Of late, urgent care centers have been opening all across the country in convenient spots around your city and town. Most likely, you will be able to find one located within a few miles of you. So there is no need to panic and feel that you have to head to an ER for every medical issue. For treating minor ailments or issues, the ER can be too crowded, the possibility of catching a contagious disease looms high and to top it off, you will likely wait for quite a while as patients with medical emergencies are treated first.

Most urgent care clinics are open 7 days a week and they typically are open after normal business hours, with some even open 24 hours a day. Often GP’s or dentists or cardiologists are single person teams and they just physically cannot be expected to provide such continuous hours of service. Such practitioners tend to keep a long list of clientele who get served by an appointment system, which can make it difficult to get in quickly. Contrast this to the urgent care center model, which offers physicians during all hours the center is open. In effect, such centers provide same the same services as a family or primary medical care doctor, but with the difference of being cheaper and quicker. Depending on the location, these centers can offer services like general medical care, occupational medicine, x-ray’s, lab tests, vaccines, school and sports physicals and on-site pharmacies to receive prescriptions quickly.

There are numerous situations where you may have a medical problem but your family GP’s offices are not open or you’d have to wait too long to get an appointment. What would you do if you had abdominal pain? What would you do if your young daughter fell off her bicycle and has a deep cut on the knees and scratches on her arms? These are examples of situations where perhaps an urgent care center would be your best option to receive quick and effective medical aid. Since these centers do not cater to serious ailments, the length of consultations are typically short, which translates into shorter wait times, especially when compared with an ER. The physicians are experienced and place a premium on customer satisfaction, striving to give the appropriate attention to each and every patient. They know how much you value your health and time and they endeavor to make sure you get the best professional treatment available. They offer individualized care and try to make you feel valuable and comfortable, which is quite underrated when you’re not feeling well!

Due to the local nature of its operation, an urgent medical care center allows you the opportunity to gain a sense of confidence and faith in a doctor. You can build a relationship with a doctor in your community, for any frequent minor conditions. Colds, rashes, urinary tract infections or similar ailments, sprains, and stitches are taken care of swiftly, cases are reviewed, x-rayed, bruises disinfected, cuts sewn or dressed up, and before you know it, you are back in your bed in your cozy home, relaxing. That’s the key benefit that ultimately has determined the success of urgent care centers. Their focus on minor conditions means patients are treated promptly and thus don’t clog up resources at an ER that could better be served treating needier patients.  The urgent care model means patients are treated on a first come first served basis.  This means there can be a wait, but a wait of 20-30 minutes is relatively minor if it means getting treatment for a nagging problem and being able to get back to work or play quickly. 

Another advantage of urgent care centers that doesn’t get much attention is the cost of treatment.   When compared to other sources for such services, such as an ER or even a family doctor, urgent care centers are typically the cheapest of all options. This is yet another reason that urgent care centers have become so successful and well-liked by people looking for alternative solutions to deal with minor conditions.