For Americans of all ages, minor injuries and illnesses can sometimes happen, and when they do, medical help is never far away. Urgent care centers, walk in clinics, and a multicare urgent care clinic are all options for treatment for a wide variety of ailments, and the number of these clinics, combined with their fast-paced patient care, professional staff, and efficient prices make them an attractive option for nearly anyone who needs care at any time of the day. Where can someone find urgent care, and what ailments are commonly treated there? What other service can urgent care provide?
Injuries and Illness
Americans today face a number of potential accidents, allergies, and bacterial or viral infections to contend with, and urgent care is there to help. The common cold and flu are prolific infections that Americans get every year; annually, according to estimates, Americans as a whole contract 1 billion colds, and similarly, around 5% to 20% of all Americans will get tFor Americans of all ages, minor injuries and illnesses can sometimes happen, and when they do, medical help is never far away. Urgent care centers, walk in clinics, and a multicare urgent care clinic are all options for treatment for a wide variety of ailments, and the number of these clinics, combined with their fast-paced patient care, professional staff, and efficient prices make them an attractive option for nearly anyone who needs care at any time of the day. Where can someone find urgent care, and what ailments are commonly treated there? What other service can urgent care provide?
Injuries and Illness
Americans today face a number of potential accidents, allergies, and bacterial or viral infections to contend with, and urgent care is there to help. The common cold and flu are prolific infections that Americans get every year; annually, according to estimates, Americans as a whole contract 1 billion colds, and similarly, around 5% to 20% of all Americans will get the flu every year. Symptoms for a cold may last anywhere from 48 hours to 14 days, and full recovery can be expected within 10 days. If a cold or flu lasts for a long time or if the symptoms become severe enough, treatment may be needed at an urgent care center. The staff there will know what to do.
Ankle sprains and bone fractures are two more problems that urgent care will address. These are common injuries; it is believed that around 25,000 Americans will get an ankle sprain every single day, and such a condition can hamper someone’s ability for work or performing sports, so going to a walk-in clinic is strongly recommended for treatment. Bone fractures, too, can be addressed at such a clinic; four out of five urgent care clinics will treat patients’ bone fractures. Allergies to food or plants may also necessitate a visit to urgent care; a child may accidentally set off a food allergy such as peanuts, and the swelling, itching, and rashes that may result are all symptoms that an urgent care location can take care of. Light wounds and cuts can be sanitized and stitched closed at urgent care locations, and upper respiratory conditions rank as the most common ailment treated at urgent care. In second place is the aforementioned wound care as of the year 2012.
In addition to treating these many different injuries, allergies, and illnesses, urgent care centers can also prescribe or refill drug prescriptions at their pharmacies for a variety of maladies, from allergies to vitamin deficiencies to soothing mental conditions.
Finding Urgent Care Treatment
The good news is that urgent care centers, and their staff, are numerous across the United States; around 20,000 physicians practice urgent care medicine, and they can be found in thousands of urgent care locations. Some of these clinics are in fact retail clinics, meaning that they are built into major retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens. Such retailers are easy to find and have ample parking, making them very convenient for services such as checkups and refilling prescription drugs, among others. Other centers, which are often independent of major medical brands, can be found with a simple Internet search on a computer or smart phone. Searching for “24 hour urgent care near me” should yield nearby clinics in any urban or rural setting, along with their address and hours of operation. In fact, 85% of these centers are open all seven days of the week. And at these clinics, patients can expect short wait times; many clinics can see three patients per hour, and wait times may be as low as 15 minutes per person, although this may vary based on the time of day or the number of staff members available. The Urgent Care Association of American believes that an average of 3 million people visit urgent care clinics every single week.