2 Reasons to Consider Going to an Urgent-Care Facility
One of the most beneficial medical services that you can take advantage of is urgent care, mostly because urgent-care facilities provide an alternative to a traditional emergency room. Urgent-care facilities are intended to help treat urgent issues that are too painful or serious to wait until your primary-care physician is in the office to treat but are not serious enough to warrant a trip to an emergency room.
For example, a sprain is an appropriate reason to visit an urgent-care facility while a head trauma or concussion should be dealt with by the emergency room due to the possible life-threatening complications that those injuries can have. Listed below are two reasons to consider going to an urgent-care facility.
Availability
One of the biggest benefits provided by an urgent-care facility is that professionals there are almost always available to provide you with care when you need it. In general, an urgent-care facility is required to be open 7 days a week in order to qualify as an urgent-care facility, which means that you will not have to wait until your primary-care physician is back in the office after the weekend or holiday in order to get treated for a non-emergency issue. In addition, many of these urgent care facilities will actually go beyond that requirement and actually offer 24-hour care.
You should also go to an urgent-care facility because the wait for treatment is generally going to be much shorter than it will be if you go to the emergency room with a non-emergency condition. The reason for this is that an emergency room is not going to see patients based on the order that they arrived in but based on the severity of the patient's condition and the danger the patient is in. As a result, going to an urgent-care facility not only means that you will be treated faster but also means you will not be taking up space and slowing down the emergency room's response times with a non-emergency situation.
Cost
Another reason to consider going to an urgent-care facility instead of the emergency room if your doctor is out of the office is that the cost is going to be quite a bit lower. The reason for this is that many health-insurance providers will cover a lot more of the cost of your visit to an urgent-care facility versus the cost of going to an emergency room. For example, if you have health insurance, you can often leave after only having to pay a copay, whereas a visit to an emergency room can easily cost you hundreds of dollars out of your own pocket even if you have health insurance.
Visit your local urgent-care facility today in order to take advantage of the many benefits that urgent care can provide. An urgent-care facility is a great medical resource due to the availability and low cost of care. Check out a facility like GA Emergency Associates (St. Joseph's /Candler Immediate Care) to learn more.
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