Three Things Every Parent Needs to Know About Urgent Care

 

It always happens on a weekend. You get home from work on a Friday afternoon, just ready to rest and rejuvenate for the next two days, when your child seems a little off. By the time the sun goes down, they have a definite fever. Something is up. You know that they probably just need a round of antibiotics to fend off the bug they have, but since it’s Friday evening, there is no getting them into your pediatrician for several days. This leaves you with very limited options.


You could take them to the emergency room, but that’s a huge bummer. You’ll have to sit with your miserable child for several hours, in a waiting room that exposes them to God-knows-what, and then get a bill that’s going to cost you one of your vital organs to pay for it, thanks to all the hefty hospital surcharges.


So what does a mom do in this predicament? We’d like to introduce you to every parent’s best friend, “skip the wait urgent care.” When we say “skip the wait urgent care,” we mean that you sign in and fill out the paperwork without ever leaving your home, the skip the wait urgent care clinic automatically estimates what time you will be seen and tells you an appointment to show up at. No waiting around in an uncomfortable waiting room with a bunch of contagious illnesses. You just walk into the urgent care and get the treatment you need from a licensed medical professional, pronto. If this is the first you’re hearing of this type of medical setup, here are a few other things you should know:


Three Things Every Parent Needs to Know About Urgent Care

1. You probably won’t be seen by a doctor.
   
   There are approximately 9,000 urgent care clinics across the United States, and they employ a sum total of approximately 20,000 doctors. That might seem like a lot, but when you calculate that it allows approximately just over two doctors per urgent care, and most urgent care clinics are opened around the clock, you’ll realize that a bulk of the approximately 24,000 patients that seek care at an urgent care clinic per week are treated by someone other than a doctor.
   
   
   This is good news for you though. Most urgent care clinics rely on nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to treat a bulk of the patients. These medical professionals have all the medical expertise to diagnose you and prescribe a treatment, but at a far lower cost than you’d pay a doctor. Your medical treatment is the same, but the final bill you get is lower.




2. Your medical issue doesn’t need to be urgent.
   
   By definition, skip the wait urgent care clinics are designed to treat patients that require care within 24 hours, but that’s not all they do. Yes, if you have a condition that needs immediate care, such as itchy eyes, painful lacerations, or extreme stomach pain, getting to an urgent care is a good idea.
   
   
   However, your urgent care clinic can provide treatment for almost anything your regular doctor can provide. If you need a doctor to sign off that you’re cleared to return to work, urgent care is a good option. If you need a quick prescription just until you can get in to see your doctor, by all means get it from urgent care.
3. In fact, urgent care can provide services that you won’t get from your doctor.
   
   While we’re on the subject, your doctor is an invaluable resource and urgent care doesn’t replace them, but they are fairly limited on the medical services they provide in house. If you need lab work, your doctor likely will send you to third-party lab. However, most urgent care clinics can do it right then and there. If you need fracture care, your doctor will send you to the hospital; urgent care can give you x-rays and provide the care for your broken bone on-site (with the exception of bone breaks where the bone is protruding from the skin; that should go straight to the emergency room). If you need intravenous fluid, your doctor won’t be able to help, but almost any urgent care can give you treatment and save you a trip to the hospital!

Questions? Share in the comment section!