One of the most important aspects of living a happy and content life is to achieve and maintain the best health you possibly can. Staying healthy makes your life easy, saves you from a number of scenarios where you can possibly experience pain or discomfort and keeps you active for long durations. When it is one of those rare occasions that you do get bogged down by a health concern, a trip to the doctor is usually in order. Many people visit crowded hospital ERs for their examination and treatment, which is a good way of doing things, although there are a number of downsides.
ERs are equipped with all the people, machines and medicines that you need to achieve relief, but they are built for emergency situations. Everyday, household problems are less of a priority in these places, and you might have to wait for a long time before a medical professional gets free from emergency duty. Also, emergency rooms are fragmented and there are usually separate departments for every facet of medical care. Waiting in line and going from one department to another might not be things that you are willing to do, and if you prefer something simpler, cheaper, quicker and equally effective, you should consider an urgent care center.
Urgent Care Clinics and How They Can Help
Urgent care centers are meant for people with conditions that do not classify as an emergency. Most people who go to the doctor for treatment fall under this category, and this is why choosing an urgent care clinic can be a great decision if you want smooth, swift and affordable treatment. These clinics have the kind of medical personnel you need, can run many kinds of diagnostic tests and have a full stock of medicine at hand which it can dispense as and when required. So, why exactly are you better off going to an urgent care center instead of a hospital ER? Here are some compelling reasons –
- Accessibility – The place you reach when you want a medical condition examined and cured should be a place that is accessible. Urgent care centers are enormously accessible, and with two new clinics on average opening up every day, 15,000 scheduled urgent care clinics are expected to be in operation by the year 2019. It is also important to note that about 85% of all urgent care centers are open seven days a week, about 66% of them open prior to nine in the morning, and about 95% of stay open till seven in the evening. If its accessibility you want, an urgent care clinic can certainly deliver.
- Convenience – Unlike emergency rooms where you might have to run from department to department to get different things done, urgent care centers have everything at one place. Doctors, diagnostics and medicines are all available from a central spot, making things easier and more convenient for those who come to get their medical problems sorted.
- Time and Cost Savings – Because of reasons obvious from the above points, a trip to an urgent care center can save you quite a bit of time and money, compared to a trip to a hospital ER. Wait times at urgent care clinics are usually shorter than 20 minutes, and statistics show that on average, patients can save up to $800 and three hours of time per visit if they choose an urgent care center over the ER. Urgent care clinics have their own attached pharmacy which stocks usually prescribed medicine, and that saves even more time for patients.
While it is clear that the hospital ER is your best bet when faced with an emergency, for anything else it makes more sense to find a nearby urgent care center if you want competent, all-round medical care faster, while saving on costs.
