If you’re not feeling well but can’t get an appointment at your primary doctor’s office today, you might decide to go to the closest urgent care clinic. According to the Mayo Clinic, urgent care facilities can provide for people’s health and wellness needs. Urgent care facilities are also a good choice when you are out of town and need care.
An urgent care facility is often the right choice for medical care. If you have an earache or you’ve twisted your ankle playing sports, it makes sense to go to an urgent care facility. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, if a temperature over 102 degrees accompanies your earache or you can’t support weight on your ankle, you should probably head to the emergency room.
Before going to an urgent care clinic, be sure you know what the clinic hours are for the facility you choose. If your injury happens in the middle of the night, and it can’t wait for the morning, you may have to go to the ER for care. In an urgent care facility, you will be placed in a clinic room much more quickly than you would if you go to the emergency room.
When your daughter left for her freshman year in college you had no idea how often she would be using the walk in clinic services at the health center closest to campus. From the first time that she had a serious sore throat and allergies to visits for other conditions, however, the walk in clinic was often her best option for care. In fact, it was the doctor at the walk in clinic who actually suggested that she see a doctor about getting her tonsils removed at some point.
Far from an impersonal clinic that simply processed patients in and out of their system as fast as possible, this walk in clinic that she located had provided her excellent care. It amy have originally been the convenient location that lead her to the clinic that was near her campus, but it turned out that this became her go to location for any health care needs that she required while she was in college. Attending a small liberal arts college that had an extremely limited health care option, the after hours urgent care that she located provided her the flexibility that she needed. From the strep throat tests to the unusual but severe headaches, the medical help that she received at this clinic was exceptional.
In fact, your daughter ended up referring several of her friends and gymnastics teammates to this location as well. She even insisted that you drop by the clinic with her once when you were visiting. Your daughter wanted you to meet the receptionist who knew her by name, and she even asked if you could take them a gift card to the near by coffee shop. When parents send their oldest child to college they are often not thinking about health care needs, but if the situation occurs it is nice to have a trusted option.
How Do You Find Doctors in a New or Unfamiliar Location?
It probably comes as no surprise that college students rarely need care during normal office hours. And, even if they have located a physician near their campus, the chance of getting an office appointment when it is needed can be very rare. For many college students and others, a walk in health care clinic is a great option.
Walk In Clinics Provide Flexible Scheduling. Some of the latest research indicates that there are currently as many as 20,000 physicians who practice urgent care medicine today. In a time of expanding health insurance for many, it should come as no surprise that the nation will continue to look for health care options that are easy to schedule. When an illness or minor injury occurs in the evening or on the weekend, a walk in clinic may be the perfect answer.
With many locations being open 24 hours a day, in fact, it is easy to get the care you need in a convenient time frame. Waiting until a Monday morning to call in for a possible appointment, for instance, is simply not an option for a parent who is dealing with a sick infant on a Saturday afternoon. When, for example, you are fairly certain that your little one has an ear infection, it is beneficial to verify that diagnosis and get started on the appropriate medication as soon as possible. Given that 85% of urgent care centers are open seven days a week, the likelihood of getting an appointment is pretty high.
Health Clinics Are Often More Affordable. For families who have never had insurance before, an emergency room visit may have seemed like the best option in the past. With an increasing number of families getting coverage under the Affordable Care Act, however, urgent care clinic copays are often the most affordable. Paying the high price of an emergency room visit makes little sense when a health care clinics costs are often posted and easy to understand. You need a flu shot: the clinic can tell you exactly what the cost will be. You need a strep throat test: the clinic can tell you those charges as well. With fewer hidden and overhead charges, a quick care clinic often has prices that are even manageable for someone who still finds himself without any health care coverage.
