Seeking medical treatment can be difficult for those in the United States without health insurance, as well as for those who are not able to schedule a doctor’s appointment during regular office hours, often due to work. In fact, many of these people are forced to rely on the emergency room for any sort of medical care or treatment, and, as most of us know, the emergency room is often prohibitively expensive, particularly for the uninsured.
Fortunately, however, urgent care centers present a way to seek medical treatment for those who would otherwise not be able to. Urgent care locations are becoming more and more popular, visited by up to three million patients across the country in just one week alone. Around 20,000 doctors now practice at urgent care clinics as well, ensuring that the quality of treatment received remains high. For those who work busy jobs or whose lives are otherwise busy, an urgent care clinic is the perfect place to get treatment, as the vast majority of all urgent care facilities in the United States are open all seven days of the week. A portion of these urgent care clinics are open for twenty four hours as well. Add that on to the fact that a typical walk in clinic has an average wait time of only about fifteen minutes, compared to the potential hours you may spend in an emergency room waiting room.
Urgent care centers are best known for treating common ailments, such as the common cold, of which there are about one billion cases of every year in the United States alone, and the flu, of which up to 20% of Americans may contract during any given flu season. And urgent care center is not only able to provide diagnosis, but also treatment for these common conditions and others, such as upper respiratory infections, of which an urgent care center sees more of than any other illness.
But urgent care centers can also provide diagnosis and treatment for more serious concerns as well. For instance, urgent care centers frequently treat sprained ankles, of which nearly 25,000 people sustain every single day. The majority of these walk in clinics (around 80%, or four out of five) can also diagnose and provide treatment for fractures.
No matter what the medical issue, an urgent care center can provide a viable alternative for medical treatment to those who would otherwise be left with the emergency room as their only option.