No one likes to think about emergency situations or times when our children or our spouses become unexpectedly ill. When these situations do happen though it is important to have a plan for care. While a generation ago parents and spouses would have taken a loved one to a hospital emergency room, those expensive trips are not always necessary today. An advantage urgent care setting, or another similar location, can provide fast, reliable, affordable care in a timely manner.
Advantage Urgent Care Settings Are Affordable and Efficient
Wait times in hospital emergency rooms can be extensive. And while they are making you wait to receive that care you often find yourself stressed about the time and stressed about the charges you will incur. It is difficult to blame hospitals for the long wait times because they practice a triage plan that forces them to prioritize a patient’s need to be seen. And since hospital emergency rooms are where police and other rescue workers bring real emergency cases, it is likely that the list of people who need to be seen before you will grow even as you sit there waiting your turn.
Because of the costly overhead of staffing and maintaing a large hospital, these expenses are often turned over to the patients receiving treatment. When you step into an emergency room just for what you hoped might be a quick visit, you may share the cost of everything that is going on in that hospital.
Sadly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 48% of all adult ER patients who were not injured or sick enough to be admitted to the hospital sought this expensive treatment simply because their physicians? offices were closed. These patients would have been better served in a less expensive, and less busy, urgent care clinic. In fact, 57% of patients wait less than 15 minutes to be seen. Additionally, nearly 80% of all visits are completed in 60 minutes or less. An advantage urgent care setting is also much less expensive. Without the expensive overhead of any entire hospital setting, patients are charged less for the services they receive. In some locations, exact prices for the most common services are even posted.
Quick, Affordable Care Does Not Mean Ineffective Service
Staffed by doctors, physicians assistants, and nurses, these urgent care centers can provide many of the services a patient will need. For example, 80% of these locations can provide fracture care and 70% can administer intravenous fluids when needed. The staff of these centers, because they can see patients more quickly, can also provide a peace of mind that is not present during the long waits of hospital emergency rooms.
Getting in and out of a clinic faster also means that you may have less likelihood of being exposed to a condition of another person in a crowded hospital emergency waiting room. Qualified doctors with x-ray machines and other necessary equipment will be able to spend time talking to patients and providing detailed follow up instructions for post visit care.
Take the Time to Make the Best Choice in Any Health Situation
Advantage urgent care settings and other similar locations provide a wise alternative to a regular physician’s office or a hospital emergency room. When an unexpected health situation occurs it is often difficult to get into see your regular family physician or pediatrician. The majority of those time slots are scheduled and filled weeks, and sometimes months, in advance. While a few openings may be kept for unexpected visits, the wait times on telephones trying to get one of those few appointments can be frustrating. Walk in healthcare clinics, on the other hand, provide openings without prior appointments.
Understanding the pricing structure ahead of time makes some of these clinics even more effective. Knowing, for example, that a simple strep test will only cost you $36, or whatever that location charges, can make the process of going in when you need healthcare more manageable. As our nation moves toward a country where more and more people are covered by health insurance, future patients should look toward new ways of accessing affordable and timely quality treatment. An urgent care setting provides these advantages.