You’ve come down with the flu or just found out you have a painful urinary tract infection that won’t go away. Now what? It’s time to drop by your local urgent care center and ask to be seen by a doctor. While this can seem a little spontaneous, the fact of the matter remains that urgent care clinics are designed with the express purpose of getting you in and out the door as soon as possible. Bruises, cuts, sprains, burns, infections, illnesses, headaches, nausea…an urgent care center is more than capable of addressing what’s bringing you down.
The five tips below will help you become better acquainted with the immediate care at your fingertips, from figuring out your local urgent care center’s schedule to knowing when to skip the emergency room.
Did You Know?
Why differentiate between medical care at all? Isn’t it all the same at the end of the day? Not quite. Urgent Care Medicine is its own field, one that exists as a sort of ‘middleman’ between your regular doctor and the emergency room. Its purpose is to treat minor to moderate issues in a timely fashion and with an affordable cost (which may or may not be covered by your insurance plan). There are 20,000 physicians practicing Urgent Care Medicine today.
Don’t Underestimate Your Symptoms
It can be easy to brush off what you’re going through to save money. Underestimating your symptoms, however, can just make them worse. Why not visit your local urgent care center and get any and all concerns cleared up? The most common diagnosis seen in the average urgent care center was the upper respiratory issue, though this is followed close behind by stomach problems, wound repair and ankle sprains. Every week sees over three million patients visiting urgent care centers.
Know What Can Be Treated
An urgent care center may be a great one-stop shop for all things injury and illness related, but that doesn’t mean it can treat everything. Alongside burns and cuts a clinic can help with the common cold and the flu. The United States comes down with a collective one billion colds every year, with an estimated 20% of Americans also contracting the flu virus. Cold symptoms can last for as little as two days and as long as two weeks, though a fever that reaches too high should be seen by a doctor to ensure no complications are occurring.
Seek Out Preventative Care
Instead of waiting until you come down with an illness or injury, be proactive and visit an urgent care center for preventative care. This can be as simple as applying for seasonal flu shots or seeking out STD testing, whether or not you’re currently sexually active. Some urgent care clinics are also ‘multicare’, able to treat an even wider variety of issues brought to the table. Taking a few minutes to research the establishments in your city will go a long way in helping you get the care you need.
Drop By An Urgent Care Clinic This Year
Visit an urgent care clinic to make sure you’re caught up on your vaccinations. Drop by when you have a headache that won’t go away no matter how well you sleep. When you have a cut you think might need stitches? It helps to know there’s a resource right around the corner when life throws you a curveball. Most urgent care centers are open seven days per week, with some offering a wider variety of walk in times, but you should always look up a multicare center in your own area before visiting.
Healthcare shouldn’t be stressful. From sports physicals to preventative care, an urgent care clinic will make sure it stays that way.