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Here are 5 Symptoms and Injuries that Urgent Care Can Help Treat

Getting medical treatment is always of vital importance, especially as we get older. For years, conventional wisdom dictated that the proper way to get treatment was to make an appointment to see the doctor at the doctors office. However, this isn’t exactly convenient since it can sometimes take days to get an appointment scheduled. It is much easier to simply visit the local urgent care, as these are walk in clinics that allow patients to come in at almost any time during the week, as these walk in clinics are open seven days a week. Urgent care clinics are also important because of the wide variety of issues they can treat, and this article will take a look at a few of them.

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Some Treatments Offered in an Immediate Clinic

We all know how awful it is when we have an accident or someone we care for is hurt or doesn’t feel good. It is so unpleasant when we have to make an emergency trip for medical help. And any time a sudden medical issue comes up, it’s always inconvenient and it’s always scary. Naturally, these situations occur off hours, like in the middle of the night, or on holidays and weekend when local urgent care centers are not open.

Fortunately there is such a thing as an immediate clinic, which is open 7 days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. But how do you know what is treated in an immediate clinic? Will the clinic be able to give you the help you need for your specific medical problem? Here is an overview of what you can expect to find at a clinic such as this, when you have a medical emergency and it is not feasible or advisable or practical to visit an emergency room.

First of all, let’s start with accidents and injuries. A clinic will treat sports injuries and Worker’s Comp injuries

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Three Benefits to Using an Urgent Care Clinic Rather Than Waiting for an Appointment

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Many people turn to their doctor when they start having issues related to back pain, a sudden sprain, or feel as though they are coming down with the flu. When seeking medical care, it might be better for individuals to make a trip to their local urgent care clinic instead of waiting until morning to be seen by their regular doctor. After hours urgent care can offer a shorter visit than the emergency room, along with longer hours than a traditional doctors office. Here are three benefits of going to visit a clinic instead of one?s regular doctor.

There is a Shorter Waiting Time With Urgent Care and the Hours Are Usually Longer

Over 80% of urgent care centers are open at least six days a week, with some being open every day. Compare this with a doctor?s office, which may only be open Monday-Friday. Since urgent care clinics are used to see patients as quickly as possible and treating them in an efficient manner, they are able to get them out sooner compared to an emergency room, where people are known to wait for hours before being seen by a doctor sometimes.

Urgent Care Centers Provide Just as Much Help as a Normal Doctor?s Office

Doctors who work in urgent care provide much of the same assistance as a regular doctor?s office would. This includes treating everything from the flu, to even more serious issues, such as sprains and fractures. Over half of all urgent care clinics offer assistance to individuals who have received fractures, making them just as helpful as an emergency room. An urgent care facility is designed to take care of patients in an efficient manner, no matter what type of problem they are experiencing.

Urgent Care Clinics Are Popping Up All Over the Country

Urgent care clinics were once not as common, and thus not everyone could enjoy their help and benefits. Today, over 2 million people visit the urgent care each week, showing how much this type of healthcare has grown, and why it is so desirable for many individuals. Everyone from babies and small children to older adults can visit, and although insurance plans do vary, they generally cover the cost of a person visiting the urgent care clinic. This provides many people with the benefits they need to protect their health no matter what.

Urgent clinic care is one of the preferred ways for individuals to heal themselves. It allows them to wait for shorter periods of time than they would with an emergency room, and they can often be seen quickly. These centers can handle all the same problems a normal doctor?s office would, from back problems to colds. Finally, urgent care clinics are growing all across the country, which is allowing people to take advantage of much needed healthcare, and be healed sooner than they would other normal circumstances.

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Treating Kids’ Sports Injuries at Urgent Care Clinics

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Few things strike more fear into a parent’s heart than hearing their child has been seriously injured. The fact is that it happens. Every year, nearly 12 million people between the ages of 5 and 22 are injured playing sports. It ends up costing them at least 20 million school days. These injuries cost nearly $33 million each year in health care costs. The Emergency Room is no longer the only place to go. There are urgent care centers all over the country. There are nearly 20,000 doctors practicing at these centers that usually are open seven days a week. Many clinics do offer children s urgent care.

Football is the most common cause of children are taken for emergency room care or to an urgent care facility. The spots that follow are basketball, baseball and soccer.

In recent years, a lot more attention has been paid to the number of concussions players suffer from and what the long term implications of these injuries are. These are serious and potentially fatal injuries. Symptoms include dizziness, nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, memory loss, confusion, slurred speech and changes in mood. Any of these symptoms warrant a visit as soon as possible to a physician because they are serious brain injuries. If you see your child suffer a head injury on the field or court, make them sit out for at least a little while so you or a medical professional can evaluate them. They may not really understand what is going on and will confused if they have a concussion.

Other common injuries include broken and bruised bones and sprains and strains. Many of the injuries kids suffer while playing sports are actually overuse injuries. That ankle might just have enough of playing and gave out for that reason. Stress fractures are overuse injuries. One way to keep out of children s urgent care centers is to be proactive in getting them care before they injure something. If you suspect they are playing too much or too hard, make them take a break. There’s no real benefit to “walking it off” or “playing through the pain.” An injured area needs some rest.

The areas most often impacted are the ankle, head, finger, knee and face.

Children s urgent care facilities may offer a better experience than an emergency room for these injuries. Walk in clinics can often see you sooner and they are not usually an intimidating as a pediatric emergency room. They are also much less chaotic and frantic than emergency rooms, with ambulances coming and going.

Before an injury happens talk to your pediatrician about urgent care facilities in the area. There might be some that they work with or think are better. It is good to have that information before you need it. When your children are hurt, it is very stressful. Not knowing where to go when that happens will only add to your stress.

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Did This UK Doctor Write the Best Doctor’s Note?

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No matter who they are, everyone has likely had a day where they simply didn’t feel up to their normal tasks because of a cough or runny nose. Unfortunately, if you’re going to take time out of your busy schedule, your boss or teacher will often require you to bring a doctor’s note in the following day to explain your absence. While these requirements are put in place to encourage accountability, an understandable quality, this can often be unnecessarily difficult. Now, it seems that one doctor in the United Kingdom is taking a stand: a caustic note they wrote to one employer is currently making its way around the web, delighting everyone who has ever felt unable to take time off.

In late March, a company in the UK reportedly demanded that their employee prove that that he had a simple cold. Fortunately, this unlucky patient appears to have one of the best doctors in the country when it comes to biting humor and righteous indignation. A picture of the infamous sick note has since appeared on the Mirrorand several other news sites.

“To Whom it may concern,”the letter reads.

“[The employee] has had, by their own report, a cold today and sensibly stayed home from work rather than spreading this to his colleagues/customers.

“I have no test for the common cold and therefore believe him, however you feel his time and mine should be wasted by making him sit in the walk in clinic for hours and me spending time writing a sick note that I could be spending on people who genuinely need my attention.

“Please reconsider your policy on this – there are surely better ways of wasting your tax dollars.”

The physician’s comments may seem a little harsh, but they have a point: walk in health clinics are often crowded, and requiring that a person see a doctor for a minor condition only extends waiting times for the more seriously ill. Additionally, there is no proven test for the common cold, and the symptoms can be easily treated with over-the-counter medication. Moreover, if a patient isn’t considered sick without this “proof”, it only increases the chances they will return to work before they are recovered and spread the sickness to their peers. For this reason, this physician definitely seems to belong among the best doctors, even if the distinction is only temporary or limited to the sardonic category among the best doctors.

If you think you are coming down with a minor illness, like a cold, in the United States, you should try to rest and take over-the-counter medication to soothe your symptoms until you feel recovered. However, if you need a doctor’s note or feel your symptoms worsening, you may be able to avoid long waiting times by visiting an urgent care center near you. These walk in clinics are designed to treat a variety of non-life-threatening conditions quickly, conveniently and effectively.