How To Understand Everything Your Urgent Care has to Offer

Urgent Care has become a multi-billion dollar medically related business in the United States within the past few decades.  The favorable acceptance of this form of patient care is due in most part to its accessibility, extended hours and exceptional care.

The title "Urgent Care" encompasses immediate care facilities, walk-in clinics, after-hours facilities, express clinics, and others.  Health clinics are geared to full patient care, including preventative treatment, and should not be confuse with urgent care facilities.

There are many advantages to utilizing an urgent care clinic: most immediate care facilities accept insured and uninsured patients, they have much lower co-pays than emergency rooms and extended hours to accommodate the most difficult schedule, there is often no appointment necessary, and they feature licensed, highly-trained physicians and nurse practitioners.  Urgent care facilities have emerged everywhere, allowing the patient access to excellent and immediate medical attention.

Urgent care clinics treat flu and cold symptoms, fevers, sore throats, infections, wounds, bites, sprains, and, most recently, H1N1.  Many offer flu, pneumonia, tetanus and H1N1 vaccinations.  Urgent care facilities do not tend to emergent care issues such as chest pain, shortness of breath, compound fractures, poisonings, trauma, and other life-threatening conditions.

If you desire more information about the urgent care facility in your area, your are only a web-search or phone call away.  Based on a phone inquiry to three urgent care facilities within a ten mile radius, the following information was offered:

• Two of the three facilities accepted all major insurance. The third was restricted to the insurance company that owned the facility.
• All three accepted walk-ins on a regular basis.
• Two of the three urgent care centers offered hours of 7 am to 9 pm.  The third was an after-hours facility and was open from 5 pm to 11 pm.
• All three accepted Medicaid and Medicare.
• Two of the three facilities had onsite x-ray machinery.
• Two of the three facilities offered an on-site pharmacy.
• Two of the three urgent care facilities had an MD at the facility at all times, along with Nurse Practitioners.  The after-hours clinic had at least one MD on staff but utilized more Nurse Practitioners.
• All three urgent care facilities were open 365 days a year.

What is the best way to find out what your urgent care has to offer?  Investigate the clinics in your area before needing their services.  A quick call, a web search or contact with your insurance carrier should provide all the information necessary for ease of mind when attending to your personal health care.

Urgent Care has entered the arena of excellence in patient care.  Affordability, accessibility and accountability are just a few of the reasons these facilities have exceeded their initial expectations.  Urgent care facilities have become widely accepted by physicians and patients for their outstanding dedication to healthcare.