What You Should Know About Getting Medical Help

If you’re in need of medical help and your regular doctor’s office is closed, you might decide to go to your local emergency room. After all, the ER is a place that is open 24 hours of the day, seven days of the week, 365 days of the year. And no matter who you are, you are guaranteed treatment of any kind. However, going to the emergency room for medical treatment is likely not your best option unless you are facing a true medical emergency. This is the case for a number of reasons.

For one thing, the ER is expensive. You’re likely to spend over $1000 on even a minor medical issue. You’ll also spend an immense amount of time waiting to be seen by a medical professional, likely a nurse. It will be even longer before you are able to be seen by a doctor. As a matter of fact, the average ER waiting time here in the United States is now around an hour in length. In many emergency rooms, the waiting time will be even longer than that, sometimes even substantially so.

But what can you do? Where can you go instead? Fortunately, urgent care locations and walk in clinics have been popping up all throughout the country. At the current date, there are more than 7,000 walk in clinics from coast to coast and everywhere in between, employing at least 20,000 doctors, a number that is only on the rise. And people trust these walk in clinics, with more than three million people seeking urgent care treatment on a weekly basis. And the average walk in clinic provides a viable alternative to ER care for a number of reasons.

For one thing, you’ll be able to get in to be seen in a walk in medical clinic with relative ease, as up to 85% of them are open each and every day of the week. Average wait times are much shorter in walk in urgent care clinics as well, with more than 90% of them boasting average wait times that do not even extend past a mere half of an hour. And more than half of these walk in clinics have average wait times that don’t even exceed 15 minutes. It is not uncommon for a patient to get in, be seen, be treated, and sent on their way all within the span of just one single hour. And with urgent care clinics now more vastly available than ever before, more and more people are seeking out such convenient medical care.

And really all kinds of medical care can be obtained from your local urgent care center. For one thing, various skin conditions can be seen and treated. Sunburn cases, for instance, are quite common. After all, getting a serious sunburn is easier done than many realize, as your skin will sustain damage after only just 15 minutes of unprotected exposure. In addition to this, poison ivy cases in particular are readily seen during summer months. After all, every single state found in the continental United States contains poison ivy and up to 85% of the total American population has been found to be allergic to it. With this knowledge, it should come as no real surprise that it is a malady that is particularly commonly seen.

Injuries of various types can also be seen in many a walk in health clinic. For one thing, the common ankle sprain is just that – common. There are at least 25,000 of them occurring each and every day in this country alone, with at least 80% caused by a simple inward rolling of the ankle. Fortunately, walk in clinics are more than able to manage even the most serious of sprains. After all, up to 80% of all urgent care locations have the capability to handle even minor fractures. And getting minor fracture care at a walk in clinic instead of at a hospital will save a great deal of time and money alike.

At the end of the day, there are a great many benefits to attending an urgent care location or walk in clinic instead of going to your nearest emergency room.