There are some important points to note about urgent care centers that are worth sharing in this article. They are:
- The most common diagnosis in an urgent care center was upper respiratory condition, and the most common procedure was wound repair in 2012.
- 85% of urgent care centers are open seven days a week.
- There are =20,000 physicians who practice Urgent Care Medicine.
- 3 million patients visit urgent care centers each week.
- Four out of five urgent care centers provide fracture care.
- 25,000 Americans suffer from an ankle sprain each day.
- Americans get approximately 1 billion colds.
- Between 5% and 20% of Americans come down with the flu each year.
- UTIs account for around 8.1 million visits to doctors each year.
- Cold symptoms often last from 48 hours to 14 days.
There are many instances where someone might need to go to the doctor. Sometimes they are in a difficult situation with a virus or the flu. Sometimes they have sprained an ankle or broken a bone. Sometimes they are struggling with a chronic condition, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Sometimes they an immediate attack on their health.
Whatever the reason, just a few decades ago, a person was stuck between going to the emergency room or the primary care physician’s office. The emergency room then, like today, was extremely expensive for just taking care of basic conditions. But the primary care physician’s office required an appointment.
That changed in the 1980’s, when a new form of care was implemented. It was called urgent care and it bridged the gap between the primary care physician and the emergency room. The reason this was the case is because the urgent care center took on characteristics of both of them. It bridged the gap.
If someone had an urgent condition back in the 1980’s, they could always call their primary care physician. The primary care physician was their main caretaker. He or she would cover all their basic conditions, prescribe medications, and generally provide a very general level of care. However, for an urgent condition, the primary care physician was difficult.
The reason this was the case is because the primary care physician then, like today, required an appointment. This meant that urgent issues were often not seen that same day. A person had to wait until the next day or whenever their appointment was scheduled for. This meant days suffering.
A person had another option as well. If they couldn’t wait to see the primary care physician’s office, they could always go to the emergency room. But the emergency room costed several hundreds dollars (thousands today), which was pointless for just an urgent condition that could be treated at the primary care level.
Urgent care bridged those gaps. Urgent care is same day care and on a walk-in basis. This means that urgent care centers are open longer hours than the primary care physician and a patient can be seen without having an appointment. Urgent care centers have a relatively low cost, much cheaper than a visit in the emergency room.
And they have better equipment than the primary care physician as well. The equipment sometimes consists of x-ray machines, CAT machines, MRI machines, and more. An urgent care center almost always has a physician on staff at all times and usually has a mid level provider in the building as well.
People in urgent care centers are seen in less than 15 minutes typically and almost certainly within 40 minutes. There are multiple examination rooms in an urgent care center and there are many things that are good about them. People can walk in, which is helpful, still pay a low cost, and get quality treatment.
There are some terms worth noting about this. They are urgent care treatment, urgent care Tukwila, urgent care Tukwila WA, urgent care Tumwater WA, walk in clinic, walk in clinics, walk in urgent care, walk in urgent care center, walk in urgent care centers, walk-in clinics, walk-in medical care clinic, walk-in medical clinic, and more.
An urgent care center is considered a walk in clinic. A walk in clinic means that a person can walk into the clinic and be seen by a doctor, even without an appointment. A walk in clinic is important for people who have urgent and immediate issues.