At one time or another, most of us have been faced with illnesses, even if we’re in great health. Situations that needed professional medical attention may have required us to go to an emergency Room, simply because there was no other option.
Now, there is another alternative for patients. Now, walk in clinics can take care of medical issues like seasonal illnesses, minor injuries, and allergies, to name a few. Here are five benefits to using a walk in clinic instead of going to the ER.
Convenient Hours
A major advantage to visiting a walk in clinic is the convenient hours. A significant number of urgent care centers are open relatively early and stay open pretty late on nights and weekends. During the weekdays, you will easily find a walk in clinic where the doors open early in the morning. This is a real convenience since medical situations wait for no one. In addition, quality of care counts, too, and a majority of urgent care centers always have a doctor on-site.
Shorter Wait Times
Once you arrive at a walk in clinic, the wait is usually very reasonable, even minimal, for most patients. This is not usually the case with an ER, where patients are seen depending on the severity of their illness/problems.
Seasonal Testing Service
Urgent care will test for and treat many seasonal problems such as strep throat, ear infections and sinus infections. A walk in will also handle sports injuries in a quicker and more cost efficient way than a standard ER.
Wide Range of Available Treatments
If you’re fortunate enough not to have needed to visit an urgent care lately, you might be surprised at the wide range of services available. This isn’t just a place for putting on bandages and cleaning up scrapes. Today, a walk in clinic will be able to take care of patients with fractured bones, as well as children’s injuries. Also, intravenous fluids, if necessary, are provided in many urgent care centers.
Up-to-Date Administrative Procedures and Technology
After having to visit a walk in clinic, getting lost in a sea of paperwork and forms before you can leave is enough to make anyone sick. Today, electronic prescription ordering systems are used in many urgent cares and walk ins. Many of these facilities also feature computerized methods for billing, coding and reviewing lab and image results.
To sum up, urgent cares provide a positive alternative to traditional hospital Emergency Room visits. In fact, the number of ER cases that were deemed treatable in a walk in clinic ranged between 44% to 65%, according to a private study conducted by Millman. This demonstrates the effectiveness of a walk in clinic. In all seasons, a walk in clinic can give you peace of mind, as well as solid medical treatment.
