Falling ill or sustaining an injury is certainly not anyone’s idea of a good time. For those with insurance and time to make a doctor’s appointment, the solution is relatively simple. However, those who are uninsured often find themselves making costly emergency room visits for conditions that aren’t necessarily severe enough to require emergency services. Even those who do have medical insurance aren’t always able to schedule a doctor’s appointment. For those with demanding jobs as well as family lives, a traditional doctor’s office and doctor’s appointment during the work week isn’t always feasible. However, a 24 hour walk in clinic location is more likely to be near you than not, and family urgent care can provide the same level of care that an emergency room can for a fraction of the cost.

A 24 hour walk in clinic location is most likely closer than you think. Most of urgent care facilities, a staggering 97%, are open every day of the week. 99% of these urgent care facilities are open at least four hours every day, and many are open more, like a 24 hour urgent care location. A 24 hour walk in clinic location is particularly convenient because it allows patients to seek medical treatment without needing to take time off of work. Wait times in urgent care facilities are also a fraction of what they are in emergency rooms, providing ER care without the wait. Around 60% of these medical clinics have only a fifteen minute waiting period on average and the majority have at least one physician on site at all times. Most urgent cares have around seven examination rooms, meaning that a high number of patients can be seen at once. Doctors in urgent care facilities see around 4 patients an hour, though that number is sometimes higher.

A 24 hour walk in clinic location is also considerably cheaper than an emergency room visit. A case that cost over $2,000 in an emergency room could cost as low as $226 if seen in an urgent care medical center. And of cases seen in emergency rooms, studies have shown that up to 65% of these cases could have been treated in a 24 hour walk in clinic location.

Overall, urgent care facilities provide viable medical treatment for those unable to access a primary care physician. Urgent cares can often provide the same treatments as an emergency room for a fraction of the cost. Urgent cares provide accessibility to medical treatment to those who might not otherwise have it.