Urgent care facilities are cropping up in cities large and small across the country. They offer many benefits to the people they serve, especially over traditional emergency room visits. They are not meant to replace general practitioners or family doctors, though. They are only intended to fill in the gaps between office hours or when you have an urgent need for which you can't wait for your doctor to work you into a crowded appointment schedule.
1. They Might Address Injuries or Questions that Urgent Care Doesn't
While urgent care facilities are not meant to serve as replacements for emergency rooms when people are experiencing life-threatening illnesses or injuries, they can often treat conditions that are not as serious, or life-threatening, such as:
Now that you understand the types of injuries urgent care facilities can treat, explore the benefits of choosing urgent care over an emergency room.
2. Considerably Less Time-Consuming
Most emergency rooms triage patients upon arrival and determine the severity of their injuries/illness, etc. and the urgency with which each individual patient requires treatment. For non-life-threatening injuries that could be managed by an urgent care center, this can mean longer wait times between arrival and actual treatment.
Conversely, most people are in and out of urgent care centers in less than an hour. That means you can get in, receive treatment, and get on with your day in far less time when visiting an urgent care facility.
3. Massively Less Expensive
The average cost for urgent care visits is between $100–$150. The cost of urgent care visits is on par with primary care physician visits which average around $106 per visit. They are massively less than emergency room visits, which average at $1,700. Lowering your medical bill amounts is a great reason to consider urgent care for anything other than life-threatening injuries or illnesses. Life-threatening injuries and illnesses include:
With the many financial and time-saving benefits visiting an urgent care facility can offer, you might want to consider using urgent care facilities as your first option. In fact, you might want to make urgent care your first choice for minor wound and illness care. You can learn more about your options by contacting services like Immediate Medical Care MD.