• Electronic prescription ordering systems
• Computerized lab and imaging systems
• Patient data collection systems
• Medical condition and procedure coding systems
• Patient and insurance billing systems
• Clinical note maintenance systems

The time it takes to see an urgent care physician or physician’s assistant is considerably less than at a traditional hospital emergency room. Furthermore, 65% of these centers have an on-site physician available all of the time. The Urgent Care Association of America’s survey found that 57% of patients only needed to wait up to 15 minutes to be seen. The duration of a visit was roughly an hour or less at 80% of these facilities.

A large percentage of urgent care centers have extended hours. During the week, over 66% are open before 9:00 a.m. Most, or 90.6% of these centers, will see patients until 7:00 p.m. or later. Two-out-of-five of these centers will stay open until 9:00 p.m. or even later. Some centers are also open over the weekend, with 45.7% being open on Saturdays, and 31.1% being open on Sundays.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that many of the adults seeking care at the hospital emergency room weren’t ill enough to be admitted. This applied to 48%, which is nearly half of all adult emergency room visits. Furthermore, these individuals visited the hospital emergency room because their primary care physicians weren’t available as their offices were closed for the day.

When you or someone in your family becomes ill or injured after your primary care physician’s normal business hours, consider visiting an urgent care location near you. Since these centers provide excellent care, have less waiting time, and cost less than a hospital emergency room visit, they are a welcome alternative. When a medical issue is life-threatening, however, it’s important to be transported to your nearest hospital as soon as possible.

The post The Advantages of Urgent Care From On-Site Physicians to Advanced Technologies appeared first on Health and Fitness Tips.

No matter where you live, one of the things that you would need to do to ensure that you stay in the best of health at all times is to seek out the right medical personnel in your area so that you can get yourself treated if you find the symptoms of any disease or health concern developing suddenly. Finding the right medical clinic in your area and maintaining a regular relationship with it is something that can help you during those times of need when you have to get something treated fast and without any delays. Having competent medical help is one of the most important ingredients of staying healthy and fit, and this is what you need to ensure, not only for your own self, but also for the members of your family. One of the best ways to hook up with local doctors and to get the kind of treatment that they need without having to spend a lot of money or time is to visit a local urgent care clinic. These clinics are fully functional medical clinics that can help you get a lot of conditions treated on an immediate basis, and that too, without any of the typical expenses, hassles or delays which are usually associated with hospital emergency rooms.

A lot of people think that hospital emergency rooms are the right place to go when something happens. Hospital emergency rooms are definitely well-equipped when it comes to handling a wide range of health issues and diseases. However, they are also known to operate a certain way, which can make them not the ideal solution in many cases. What do you have to understand at the very outset is that hospital emergency rooms are, in the most part, made for medical emergencies. If something is serious enough to qualify as a medical emergency, going to a hospital emergency room makes complete sense. However, if your condition is more of an urgent care scenario, there are quite a few disadvantages if you then visit a hospital emergency room. Since these places are primarily focused on medical emergencies, treatment for urgent care is very often plagued by delays. Add to that the compartmentalized nature of these places, and you might have to queue up and wait at many different locations to get your treatment and your medication. This is also what makes them particularly expensive in terms of total costs of treatment.

This is why, if you need urgent treatment, but your condition does not qualify as a medical emergency, you are much better off visiting an urgent care facility. These are clinics that are equipped to handle cases of urgent care expertly, and are full of change medical doctors and personnel who can give you the treatment that you need while not having to ask you to queue up at different places. The smaller operating scale of these clinics also ensures that their overheads and running costs are lower, which also means that you can get your treatment at significantly lesser costs when comparing with a place like a hospital emergency room. If you look at urgent care locations in your area, you are likely to find quite a few of these clinics, and if you just do a little bit of research, you would find that most of them stay open for long hours, and cater to a wide range of health problems and diseases. Most of them are also equipped to dispense medicine from the same location, and to treat conditions that need immediate intervention like fractures or conditions that require the administration of intravenous medicine.

If you are the kind of person who feels the need to schedule regular appointments with a doctor to stay on top of health and wellness demands, an urgent care center can be a great solution for you. The savings that you are likely to make on your time and money would be enough reason to switch their allegiance from the hospital emergency room to an urgent care center. This is a great way to enjoy the best of health and to get yourself the right medical treatment.

The post Visiting an Urgent Care Center for Common Health Problems appeared first on Health and Fitness Tips.

It happens to the best of us — that nagging cold you can’t quite get over, a cut that is a bit too big for a Band-Aid, or some other medical issue that isn’t quite enough to merit a trip to the emergency room, but is too big an issue for your doctor’s office to handle. Most of us have to make an appointment to see our primary care provider, and there are some problems that need to be seen as quickly as possible. For that matter, many of us don’t want to sit in our doctor’s office, spending half the day waiting to be seen. Waiting is a problem at the emergency room, too. Unless your problem is a high priority emergency, you’ll probably have to wait to be seen, and be presented with a huge bill when you’re done. This has many people considering urgent care facilities — but what is urgent care in the first place? What makes it different from the emergency room or the doctor’s office, and do those differences equal a shift in the level of care provided? Below, we’ll answer the question of “what is urgent care?” as well as debunk some of the preconceived notions surrounding urgent care services. Urgent care isn’t something you should use as a last resort — in many cases, it should be your first option.

What Is Urgent Care?

So, what is urgent care really? In its simplest form, urgent care facilities provide medical care given by professionals in a manner as quick, effective, and cheap as possible. Some services given by urgent care centers are free of charge, depending on the facility and the care provided. Urgent care facilities often employ the same doctors who work at doctor’s offices and hospitals locally — in fact, 50% of urgent care centers are owned by a physician or group of physicians. Urgent care centers, as we’ll discuss below, provide a variety of different services. While they won’t be able to treat high trauma emergencies at the same level as the emergency room, they are able to treat many problems that are too urgent or problematic for doctor’s offices. A great advantage of urgent care is the timeliness of the care too — about 60% of all urgent care facilities give patients a wait time of 15 minutes or less to see a mid-level care provider, 65% have at least one physician on-site at all times. Of course, if your emergency is too severe for an urgent care center, they’ll refer you to a hospital — but often, urgent care centers are located near or even connected to emergency rooms.

What Kind Of Care Do Urgent Care Centers Provide?

Say you find yourself or someone you love with what you suspect is a fracture — can you visit an urgent care center for this issue? The answer is yes, in many cases. An estimated 80% of urgent care centers provide fracture care. While it’s true that some fractures require an emergency room visit, some are fairly simple to treat and can be handled at an urgent care center. What about when you’re dehydrated and need fluids? Luckily, seven out of 10 urgent care centers provide intravenous fluids. Urgent care centers can also run certain tests when necessary, including STI tests, and provide stitches when necessary. Often, you can have vaccinations done at an urgent care center, and dealing with a respiratory infection or the like shouldn’t be an issue at urgent care centers.

Can I Get A Prescription At An Urgent Care Center?

While this varies from place to place, many urgent care centers can provide prescriptions. It’s believed that about 40% of urgent care centers use electronic prescription ordering systems — and even more use computer systems for viewing lab results and images, billing, and much more. Even if they don’t use electronic prescription ordering services, many facilities don’t find prescriptions to be a problem. Just be honest about your symptoms, and your care provider will try to help find a solution. An urgent care center really isn’t that different from what you’d find at your doctor’s office!

The post What Is Urgent Care? Your Questions Answered appeared first on Health and Fitness Tips.

Back pain relief options include getting a massage, undergoing acupuncture, pain medications of various types, and manual adjustments by a chiropractor. There are also pain-relief patches and ointments that can help with the pain. If your back only hurts when standing, see a doctor or a chiropractor about the problem. The problem could be nerve-related such as with sciatica.

If you have back injury numbness in your leg, it may be surgery that you need. An accident can cause many different types of injuries that may be treatable if you’re having pain. If you are living with pain, it’s up to you to look into the many options available and to find a practitioner who can help you. You may need regular treatments to treat the pain.

When your back hurts, it can feel as if everything hurts. Moving becomes difficult, if not impossible. Accomplishing even the most basic of daily activities can be a feat of pain endurance. The daily lives of nearly 70% of Americans are affected by low back pain. Of those, four out of every ten sufferers will try exercise to alleviate the pain instead of visiting a doctor or physical therapist.

Exercise can be an effective strategy to helping reduce your lower back pain. Studies have found that aerobic exercise is not only essential to overall health, but can also aid in alleviating lower back pain. The trouble is, for many back pain sufferers, most forms of aerobic exercise are too painful to complete. In such cases, taking a walk can be the best course of action.

How to walk out of low back pain

Walking provides a unique, low impact form of exercise to help alleviate lower back pain. Regularly taking a walk helps improve and maintain your ability to complete those everyday tasks your low back pain has interfered with. Walking offers many benefits, among them are:

• Greater flexibility – – When coupled with regular stretching, the act of taking a walk can help improve your range of motion, thus reducing your susceptibility to injury.
• Improved posture and stability – – Regular walking will enhance the stability of your spine and help condition the muscles of your body used to keep you upright.
• Stronger Bones – – Stronger bones means less chance of osteoporosis. A regular walk can also help reduce pain caused by osteoarthritis.
• Facilitates a healthy back through strong circulation – – Walking helps bring nutrients to soft tissues and drain toxins, thus nourishing your spinal structures.
• Helps maintain a healthy weight – – Any and all regular exercise helps in weight maintenance and overall health. An exercise routine is particularly important as we age and experience a slowing of our metabolism.

How to get the most out of your walk

To reap the most benefit from your walking routing, follow these exercise walking techniques:

1. Start a warm up: It’s always advisable to stretch before beginning exercise. Gentle stretching helps prepare your joints and muscles for the activity ahead. Before stretching, take an easy, five minute walk to further warm up your muscles and joints so they aren’t cold when you stretch.
2. Gradually increase your pace: After stretching, resume your warm-up walk pace for another five minutes. Over the next 30 minutes (approximately two miles), gradually increase the pace of your walking. You should reach a brisk pace but not so fast that you couldn’t have a conversation as you walked.
3. Gradually increase the frequency and distance of your walks: Incorporate an exercise walking routine slowly. Start with a 30 minute walk twice a week and work up to four walks per week and/or longer walks.
4. Pay attention to your posture: Always be aware of your posture as you walk. Stand fully upright without leaning forward as you walk. Your gaze should be straight ahead and shoulders relaxed. Keep your abdominal muscles engaged by pulling your stomach in as you walk. This will help support your spine. Your motion should start in your hips and your strides shouldn’t be too long or short to be naturally comfortable.

For some back pain sufferers, even regular walking may prove too painful to bear. If this is the case for you, it’s time to seek medical help.

Why you should see a physical therapist sooner rather than later

Over 40% of those who experience long-term low back pain won’t visit a doctor or physical therapist for help. While stretching and exercising can be a great way of finding relief from low back pain, you could be shooting yourself in the foot (or wallet) by putting of proper medical treatment.

Medical care for back pain can involve various pain medication and physical therapy options. If you’re a chronic lower back pain sufferer and procrastinate getting medical treatment, the costs you face when you do are likely to be far higher. According to one study, patients who received early physical therapy for their low back pain incurred nearly $2,740 lower costs than those who waited.

The post Walk Out of Low Back Pain and Into Health appeared first on Health and Fitness Tips.