From doctors for urgent care to the prevalence of urgent care locations, there is now no doubt about it that urgent care clinics are on the rise all throughout the country. And from doctors for urgent care centers to the wait times for said urgent care locations, there are a wide variety of benefits in going to an urgent care center – particularly in comparison to going to an emergency room instead.
For instance, urgent care centers are fast moving, with doctors for urgent care centers seen a large number of patients each and every day. In fact, urgent care centers all throughout the country will see as many as three million patients for each and every week that passes, a number that is only anticipated to grow in the years that are to come.
The wait times for urgent care centers are also relatively short, with an average of only fifteen minutes wait time for up to sixty percent of urgent care centers. And for more than ninety percent of all urgent care centers, the total wait time is less than half of an hour. In an emergency room, on the other hand, the standard wait time reaches nearly an hour at just over fifty eight minutes – and many patients do end up waiting that full amount of time or even more, depending on the volume of that particular emergency center.
Urgent care centers are also open far more frequently than your typical general care practitioner’s office. In fact, more than eighty percent (eighty five percent, to be more exact) of them are open all seven days of the week. And many urgent care centers are open earlier in the morning and later into the evening than a typical doctor’s office would be, making it easier to see a medical professional without taking time off of work, something that many people simply cannot afford to do.
Urgent care centers and doctors for urgent care centers – of which there are now at least twenty thousand of all throughout the United States – can treat a wide variety of medical conditions as well. In fact, it is estimated that less than five percent of all cases need to be transferred to an emergency room location. On the other hand, up to sixty five percent of all emergency room cases could have been easily dealt with in an urgent care center by doctors for urgent care instead.
For instance, up to eighty percent of all urgent care locations are able to diagnose and treat fractures. Even more are able to treat even the most severe of ankle sprains, of which there are up to twenty five thousand of each and every day all across the United States alone. More minor injuries are also able to be treated and even stitches can be administered in the vast majority of the urgent care centers that are located all throughout the country.
Illnesses can be treated at such urgent care centers as well. The common cold, of which there are at least one billion of per year, can be diagnosed in any given urgent care location. Urgent care locations are also commonly seen, particularly in young children. These can be diagnosed and then treated with a course of antibiotics, as can conditions like strep throat and the common urinary tract infection (more commonly referred to as the UTI), to which some people are predisposed to.
From doctors for urgent care to the top quality of medical care offered and available to the price to the low wait times, there are many valid and respectable reasons to choose an urgent care location the next time that you need medical treatment of some sort. After all, urgent care centers can treat more conditions than the average person might realize, and in going to urgent care instead of to a hospital emergency room, you cut down on cost significantly.
Not only this, but you also reduce the overall wait time that you spend waiting to see a doctor. Urgent care centers know that your time is valuable and make the most of it.