Urgent Care For Kids and Adults

Broken bones. Lacerations. High blood pressure. Cholesterol. Diabetes. Sprained ankles. Influenza. Strep throat. Bronchitis. Anxiety. Depression. Burns. Damaged ligaments. Headaches. Migraines. Skin issues. Circulation troubles. Head injuries. These are all injuries or illnesses that can be treated at an urgent care center. There are many more.

Urgent care is a medical field that sprung up in the late 1990s, around the time statistics were coming out about the amount of people going to emergency rooms for conditions that could have been treated in an outpatient setting. Although that trend has still continued, urgent care has sprung up as a mid-level provider in medicine.

Urgent care centers are growing in America. An estimated 3 million patients visit them each week, according to the Urgent Care Association of America. There are currently 20,000 physicians who practice Urgent Care Medicine today and more are opting to choose it as a specialty.

The popularity of urgent care centers stems from several factors. These include the ability to see a doctor without having to wait very long, the ability to walk-in without an appointment, the ability to receive treatment for issues that are disparate as strep throat and a broken bone, and many others.

One of the important factors of an urgent care center is that it attempts to the bridge the gap between the emergency room and the physician’s office–otherwise known as the family doctor. The family doctor is adequate for any number of issues and treatment is relatively adequate as well.

However, a family doctor lacks the ability oftentimes to make same day appointments, which may be an issue for someone who has a broken bone or a laceration or a bad case of influenza. These individuals need to be seen as soon as possible and the lack of a same day appointment ability with a primary care hurts that.

The walk in feature of urgent care centers becomes a focal point for many patients who feel that their needs are immediate. This has become a popular feature, as many urgent care centers are open seven days per week, often for extended hours, such as between the hours of 7am and 7pm.

Before the emergence of urgent care in the late 1990s, the emergency room was the option for people looking to receive immediate care. Unfortunately, as in well-documented studies, people who sought treatment at an emergency room often had symptoms that were not severe enough to be treated in the emergency room.

Many of these individuals could be seen in outpatient settings without taking over the need for another patient in an emergency room. This led to the emergence of urgent care, with the ability for patients to walk in without an appointment and get treated for a host of illnesses.

Urgent care centers are often equipped with the ability to handle a wide variety of cases that a primary care physician might struggle with. These include advanced imaging equipment to handle cases of broken bones and internal injuries, as well as well-trained doctors and mid-level providers skilled at diagnosis and treatment.

There are many ailments which an urgent care center can treat. Four out of five urgent care centers have the ability to treat fractures. Dizziness is the second most common complaint heard in doctor’s offices and will occur in 70% of the nation’s population in their lifetime. Ankle sprains are also a common ailment treated.

Reports estimate that 25,000 Americans suffer from an ankle sprain each day.

Part of the issue with urgent care centers is that they are cost-effective compared to other treatment facilities. While they charge more per visit than a primary care physician, they charge far less for emergency room visits, which often run in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

A medical walk in clinic that is the nearest urgent care clinic will be staffed by local doctors and offer many treatment options, including, in some locations, physical therapy.

There is also urgent care for kids. Urgent care for kids hits on the problems facing every day kids in America, such as sore throats, head aches, ear issues, bumps and bruises, scrapes and more. Urgent care for kids is performed by doctors, nurses, and technicians. Urgent care for kids is helpful for immediate problems.