For those without health insurance or with jobs that they are not able to easily take time off of, the emergency room is often the only medical care available. And emergency rooms are certainly not ideal for medical treatment outside of a true incidence of medical emergency. They are often prohibitively expensive and although they treat everyone no matter their health insurance status, bills from the emergency room can set a person back considerably in regards to finances. Emergency rooms often have long wait times of up to an hour or more, making them far from time efficient.
Fortunately, there is another option. Urgent care treatment like multicare presents a viable option for medical treatment for those who are without a primary care physician. And urgent care centers like multicare are becoming more and more popular. In fact, an estimated three million patients visit an urgent care center every single week in the United States, and walk in clinics like multicare now employ around 20,000 doctors and medical professionals.
Urgent care centers are known for their ability to treat a number of mild to moderate health concerns. One common injury that urgent care centers frequently see is that of a sprained ankle, of which 25,000 happen everyday to Americans around the country. Urgent care centers like multicare also frequently see cases of poison ivy, particularly during the summer months when Americans spend more time in the outdoors. Since around 85% of all people are allergic to poison ivy, this makes it a very common malady, compounded by the fact that it can be found in nearly every state in the country (with the exceptions of those not included as part of the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii). UTIs – or urinary tract infections – account for over 8 million doctor visits in just one year alone. A walk in urgent care center can both diagnose and prescribe antibiotics for a UTI. Common illnesses like colds – of which people have more than a billion of each year – and the flu, of which as many as 20% of all Americans contract during flu season, can also be diagnosed and treated by an urgent care facility.
But urgent care centers like multicare can also provide treatment for more serious afflictions as well. For instance, 80% of all urgent care centers are able to diagnose and treat a fracture. And this care can be provided at almost any time during the week, as the majority of urgent care facilities are open all seven days of the week (and many are even open for twenty four hours, as well). The cost of treatment at an urgent care center is also considerably lower than that of an emergency room visit, even for those without health insurance.
Urgent care centers present a viable alternative for quality medical care, especially for those who, for whatever reason, cannot get in to see a traditional primary care physician. Urgent care centers offer a way to avoid the emergency room, a place with high wait times and high prices.
