It was a wasted weekend. When your teenage daughter came home from her summer school class on Friday she indicated that she did not feel well and spend the rest of the afternoon in her room. When you forced her to come downstairs and join the family for dinner, she ate a few bites but then left the table and headed for the bathroom. For the next two days she was unable to keep anything down. By Sunday afternoon you were really concerned. Knowing that Monday was the Fourth of July made you even more concerned. The pediatrician’s office was going to be closing at 1:00 pm on Monday and would remain closed on Tuesday for the holiday break. Certain that you did not even want to wait to see if you could get in to an early Monday morning appointment, you decided to take your daughter to a local urgent care to see what they could find out.
Several hours later, after the local urgent care was able to administer some intravenous fluids, the staff released your daughter to go home. You felt comfortable knowing that many serious conditions had been ruled out and the diagnosis of a summer flu bug. The IV fluids gave your daughter some of her energy back and though it would be a quiet couple more days before she recovered, you slept well on Sunday night knowing that she had been seen by caring medical professionals. The fact that you could sleep in a little on a Monday morning instead of worrying about getting through to the pediatric office to request an appointment was a relief.
Local Urgent Care Locations Provide Convenient, Flexible Scheduling
Whether you are seeking advice for a strange reaction to an apparent spider bite or you are worried about a teenage daughter with the stomach flu, after hours urgent care services can be a real help. Instead of having to wait to get an appointment at a family pediatrician or physician’s office, a local urgent care can provide the services you require when you need them.
In a time when the Affordable Care Act has provided health care to more people than ever before, it should come as no surprise that the entire medical platform is being examined. Doctors continue to look at ways that they can provide qualified care to the increasing number of people who are in search of these services. At a time when the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act could strip that coverage from many millions of Americans who finally had a way to take care of themselves, these same medical professionals continue to struggle with platforms that can provide the most affordable care to even the least fortunate in our society.
Without health care coverage, sadly, many people turn to the most expensive option. Rather than going to a doctor, these people often end up treating their conditions in expensive hospital emergency rooms. The fact that many of these health conditions do not even merit an ER visit. In fact, nearly 48% of all adult ER patients who were not sick enough to be admitted to the hospital sought treatment at the ER because their physicians? offices were closed, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If these patients would have sought the services offered in an urgent care setting the costs for care would have been less expensive, but still excellent.
One way that urgent care settings across the country are trying to draw more people into urgent care settings is by posting their affordable rates online, in the lobbies of their waiting rooms, and, sometimes, on local billboards. Knowing, for instance, from a billboard sign that the wait time at a local urgent care is less than 10 minutes and that a strep throat test in only $25 helps patients make more informed decisions.
Fortunately, 60% of all urgent care centers have a wait time of less than 15 minutes to see a physician or mid-level provider. Even more fortunate is the fact that as many as 65% of these clinics have a physician onsite at all times. Make the right medical decision!