It is easy to choose the ER first when there is illness or injury at an odd hour, especially if worry about waiting for the appointment with your family physician. However, there are much more efficient locations, including local emergency clinics and urgent care centers. These both have qualified medical professionals who can provide ER care without the wait. Urgent care can care for the coughs, colds, breaks, sprains, pains, and other smaller injuries.
What are Urgent Care and Local Emergency Clinics?
Urgent care and local emergency clinics are similar to the ER. They are open 24 hours and offer professional medical care for almost everything. More immediate care is offered at urgent care, like having the ER care without the wait, and there is likely one just around the corner from your home.
The Emergency Room vs. Urgent Care
You may think that the emergency room staff is the most reliable to care for all illnesses and injuries. However, the ER is rarely immediately available. The primary role of the ER is caring for patients facing life-threatening situations, like heart attacks and strokes. So, milder issues will be placed on a waiting list. Luckily, urgent care clinics, or local emergency clinics, can handle those cases so quickly. It is in their brand.
The Value of Walk-In Clinics
Walk-in clinics can treat sprains and strains, and the potential broken bones that will be placed at the back of the list at the ER. Urgent care also has a testing lab, helping to stabilize these injuries in case they need further treatment. Illnesses like a heavy cough, chest congestion, ear infection, sinus infection, colds, flu, or others may just need a prescription, and urgent care is able to help. With experienced medical professionals at urgent care, you can get prescriptions immediately without having to wait for hours at the ER to even be seen. In most communities, there are walk-in clinics around the corner, where you have access to ER care without the wait.
Many Additional Services Available at Urgent Care
With overwhelming levels of heroin use and opioid addiction, detox is also offered at urgent care. With drug overdose deaths increasing regularly, access to a facility that offers fast detox is extremely helpful. Additionally, conditions like insomnia and ADHD, ADD, hormone loss, and chronic pain would be placed on the waiting list of your physician while they can be handled immediately at urgent care centers.
Even more illnesses or discomforts can be handled quickly and properly at urgent care. There is no reason to sit at home suffering. Visit times average about a half hour with about 97% of urgent care patients treated on site, so there is always the ability to trust your decision to visit urgent care clinics. This is valuable to know if you start to consider the ER, especially when you need care immediately. With the availability of walk-in urgent care clinics and local emergency clinics, you have access to ER care without the wait. If it appears that you have something that could be treated comfortably or easily like nausea, headaches, flu, cold, or other issues that could use a prescription those can be offered right there in the local clinic. And you can walk in just like the ER but without the wait.