When it comes to a person’s health, where they go to be taken care of is an important decision. The emergency room is the standard, tried-and-tested place to go when you get hurt, but it certainly isn’t the only place, and perhaps it is not the best. Urgent care centers have been rising in popularity, and for good reason. Here’s three reasons you should consider an urgent care center the next time you need to have a wound looked at:
1. Urgent Care is Much Cheaper
American medical care has grown in sophistication, but it has also grown to no longer fit within the typical household budget. The average visit to the emergency department can run a patient about fifteen-hundred dollars, and unless the injury is covered under the patient’s insurance, their pocketbook may be in as much pain as their body. Meanwhile, a visit to an urgent care center averages a cost less than one-hundred fifty dollars. You may be paying ten times as much, but is your injury being addressed ten times as competently? Fellowship training programs in urgent care medicine sponsored by the Urgent Care Association of America have been taking place since 2006, so many of these professionals have had nearly a decade of experience to ensure they are up to par. On that note…
2. Urgent Care is Faster
You may be paying ten times more at an emergency room, but you’re certainly not being treated ten times more quickly. Due to congested hours, emergency rooms tend to have significant wait times that simply aren’t as long in urgent care facilities. When it comes to medical urgent care, patience ought not to be a virtue; patients deserve the quickest response they can get. This isn’t just a matter of wait-times once you reach the doctor’s office, though. It’s also about getting convenient care.
3. Urgent Care is More Accessible
As time passes, people have become busier and subsequently have a harder time fitting a visit to the doctor into their schedule. About three million people find their way to urgent care rooms each week, however, partially due to their convenient care hours and open walk-in policy. People don’t get hurt based on a convenient schedule, so it doesn’t make sense for medical care to be available at inconvenient times; convenient care is a must. That’s why urgent care hours are chosen with the patient in mind. This was true when the urgent care movement started in 1970s and has remained true as the movement has spread throughout the globe. What is your best or worst experience with an urgent care facility?
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