In today’s world, we are not unlike the societies of the past. We face hunger, disease, and death on a daily basis. They are our constant enemies, and we fight against them all the time. Sometimes, we might forget the battle that we wage against them because our quality of life is so good compared to centuries past.
With relatively good to very good health being the norm for many people in America, we might not always know the best place to turn if our health begins to fail us, for what ever reasons they might be. If we are severely injured, we have the emergency room at a hospital where we can go to get treated for that emergency. A broken bone, a cut, or even an illness that is life-threatening that we cannot diagnose are reasons that emergency rooms were created. We all need someplace to go in the event of an emergency.
Our medical system in the United States is among the finest in the world. We have some of the best doctors in the world and are consistently trying to make changes to accommodate the world in which we live. But, to meet the needs of our growing nation, we will need more doctors who are willing to practice more broadly than many do today. Current data estimates that at least 52,000 more primary care physicians will be needed by the year 2025.
Sometimes, we choose the emergency room as the place to go for a situation in which our health is failing, but we have begun to understand is that the emergency room might not always be the best place to receive the kind of treatment we might need for the condition we have. Sometimes, a family care clinic is the better choice.
Family quick care clinics or any number of urgent care facilities are very often the best options to choose when illnesses and injuries are not emergencies. This does not mean the injuries and illnesses are not important, they are. At the same time, you might be able to receive more comprehensive treatment from family care physicians and family care providers who have more time to spend with you than an emergency room doctor.
Take the elderly among us, for example. Many of them go through their later years dealing with many more health issues than those who are just becoming adults or who are middle-aged. Depression is something that many elderly people deal with. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the depression rates for elderly people can range anywhere from 3% to 13.5%. This is not necessarily a matter for an emergency room visit unless it becomes an emergency. A family quick care clinic can spend time with and treat their elderly patients in a more comprehensive manner than a hospital emergency ward.
A family quick care facility can perform procedures much more quickly than you might think. An std testing procedure, for example, is something that can be done quickly and very efficiently at a family quick clinic. If you go to the ER for this kind of procedure, you will find yourself waiting for quite some time because it is not an emergency procedure.
The family care clinic is becoming the place to go for more than just a cold or flu. The facilities are staffed with highly skilled doctors and nurses with equipment you would not have found fifteen years ago. Going to a clinic like this can save you time, money, and will often be a better experience for you all around. Emergency room wait times have not gone down over the years, they have gone up. In 2003 the average wait time was 46.5 minutes on average. In 2009, the average wait time was 58.1 minutes.
The family quick care clinics across the nation are changing the way we as Americans view the choices we have in our health care. If you have a health issue but do not want to go to the emergency room, don’t stay home. With a quick search on your computer, you are sure to find a family quick care clinic near you.