If you need urgent medical care, you might think that your only option is to go to your nearest emergency room location. In some situations, this is something that is certainly true. After all, if you think you’re having something like a heart attack or stroke, it is most definitely within your best interests to seek urgent medical care in a hospital setting, where they will have all the necessary resources to treat you. In addition to this, such urgent medical care should also be sought for things like serious injuries such as bad breaks, gunshot wounds, and suspected internal bleeding.
But there are times when urgent medical care and treatment can be obtained elsewhere, and this is a great thing indeed. After all, emergency room wait times can be huge indeed. In fact, on average, they are likely to last for up to one full hour, if not even longer than this. If you present with a less than urgent medical concern, it is far too likely that you will spend hours in the ER, waiting for various stages of the medical care that you are in need of.
Of course, the actual cost of emergency room care can be quite high as well. Unfortunately, some people are even choosing not to get urgent medical care, even if they really need it, because the cost of such things is truly so severe. Unfortunately, many people also go into medical debt as a result of getting such medical care, something that also needs to be considered when looking at where you will get your health care. Already, the average emergency room cost has soared over $1,000 – and is only continuing to climb.
But what, exactly, is your alternative to urgent medical care? Fortunately, the answer likely lies in the urgent care centers that can be found all throughout the United States. These urgent care locations are serving up to three million people each and every week, with more than 80% of them (around 85%, to be just a bit more specific) open for at least a few hours each and every day of the week. These urgent care clinics are able to treat a wide array of medical concerns and can aptly and efficiently provide the urgent medical care that is needed by so many.
For one thing, walk-in clinics can provide the urgent medical care needed as a response to many injuries. Sprains, for instance, can be readily dealt with in the typical urgent care setting. After all, sprains are easy to sustain, with more than three quarters of them caused by a simple inversion – or inward rolling – of the ankle. This leads to as many as 25,000 total cases of ankle sprains seen throughout the United States on a daily basis. In some cases, fractures will need to be treated. Fortunately, it has been found that only a mere one fifth of urgent care locations CANNOT diagnose and treat fractures alike. And while some of the more major fractures might need to be sent to an urgent care location, it is also true that most will likely be able to be handled in that urgent care setting, in urgent care centers all throughout the country, for that matter.
In addition to this, urgent medical care can be provided in the form of preventative care as well. After all, consider the flu shot. Getting your flu shot is a hugely important thing to do, one that will help to ensure your health and even your safety throughout the duration of the flu season. Already, up to one fifth of the population will contract the flu during particularly brutal flu seasons. But without the flu shot, this number would be much higher indeed, to say the very least. And getting a flu shot is something that can help to reduce your chances of having complications from the flu, even serious ones, should you still contract it. For while no flu shot is 100% effective, having some protection is most certainly better than having no protection at all.
All in all, there are many benefits to getting the urgent medical care you need from a local urgent care location.
