Have You Recently Suffered a Sports Injury?

It has been a difficult summer.
When your daughter first told you that she wanted to stay on her college campus the summer after her sophomore year, you were disappointed that she would not be at home, but you understood her reasons. She had an opportunity work out with one of her Division III college gymnastics teammates; she would be able to work in the admissions office; and she was going to be able to get access to some very affordable campus housing.
Three months later, however, the only one of those three goals that she really accomplished was the work in the admissions office. The campus housing was nearly three times as expensive as expected, and although your daughter was able to get more hours than she expected she still was not making a lot of money.
The most disappointing part of the summer, however, was the gymnastics. She started off slowly as she recovered from a sports injury to her left knee in the second to last meet of the season. At that meet she was able to still stick her beam routine, but the pain in her knee was more than she could bear. No surgery needed, but stretched tendons from a hyperextended knee created a sports injury that required a lot of healing time. As soon as the left knee was better, however, your daughter realized that she had a strange clicking in her right knee. For the next few weeks the pain from that click was an indicator of another sports injury that eventually required an MRI. More rest was prescribed and the workouts were limited again.
Athletes, especially Division III athletes get used to dealing with one sports injury after another. Sometimes, however, it is the speed of the diagnosis and the quality of the physical therapy that determines how fast the athlete returns to practices and competition. in fact, the medical care received can often determine whether or not an athlete ever makes it back into the game, or on the balance beam for that matter.
What Is the Most Frequent Reason You Find Yourself Seeking Medical Care?

Geting stitches, infection care, wound treatment, and other sports injuries are just some of the reasons why people find themselves in need of medical care. And while college athletes may have access to team trainers and other medical providers, many others seek the care that they need from walk in clinics, family care physicians, and hopefully less often, hospital emergency rooms. From back pain to sprained ankles and from flu shots to sports physicals, the medical platform continues to shift to meet the needs of more and more people who have access to affordable health care.
Consider some of these statistics about the health care needs of Americans:

• 60% of all urgent care centers have a wait time of less than 15 minutes to see a physician or mid-level provider.
• 65% of all urgent care centers have a physician on-site at all times
• 110 million emergency room visits happen every year. For the most affordable health care, though, a hospital ER is not always the answer.
• Approximately 3,800,000 concussions were reported in the year 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This statistic was double the number that was reported in the year 2002. Many of these concussions are treated in a variety of locations, from hospital ERS to family physicians to walk in health clinics.
• 63% of volleyball injuries are related to jumping.
• 46% of surfing injuries are leg injuries, 26% are head and facial injuries, 13% are trunk and back injuries, and 13% are shoulder and arm injuries.
• Approximately 89% percent of urgent care centers saw an increase in patient visits in the year 2014, according to the UCAOA 2015 Benchmarking Survey.
• There are approximately 37.2 million injury-related visits to the ER a year, according to the CDC.

An increasing number of sports injuries occur every year. From boating and beach accidents to volleyball and gymnastics injuries, it is important to make sure that patients in need find the care the need in the most convenient and affordable format. Very often, a walk in clinic is the best place to get quality care you need at a price that is affordable.