It is a fact of life that Americans young and old will sometimes suffer from everyday illness or wounds, and it is important to know when and how to find walk in clinics or other medical facilities such as your family doctor. Other health issues might call for more specialized forms of treatment, such as a detox doctor at a formal clinic that deals with drug addiction such as opiates. Other times, a person may want to lose weight quickly, and this means visiting weight loss physicians at a weight loss clinic. Knowing where to go for health problems can save a life, and walk in clinics are just the start. Based on what health issue a victim is suffering, the solution may vary widely.
Walk In Clinics
For more general health problems, a person is encouraged to visit walk in clinics near them, and walk in clinics may be open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and eve if a clinic isn’t, they often boast wide hours of operation for seeing patients. Nearly every American town and city should have at least one, and a person can search on a smart phone or a PC such as “walk in clinics Burlington VT” or “walk in clinics near me Hollywood” to find a clinics that is within walking or driving distance for themselves or a patient nearby. These clinics tend to be independent or part of a small network of such clinics, and they are staffed with nurse practitioners and physicians who can handle a wide variety of non life-threatening problems. These clinics can often run very smoothly; a clinic in good operational order can see about three patients per hour, and a patient should expect a wait time of about 15 minutes or so. Many of these clinics also accept a variety of health insurance policies.
What ailments can be treated at walk in clinics today? Cough and cold problems can often be treated here, and the cold and flu’s symptoms can be treated with medicine provided at walk in clinics. What is more, these clinics often treat sprained ankles and wrists, and seeing how about 25,000 Americans sprain their ankles every day, such as while playing sports, it is clear that this is a common problem that needs treatment. Four out of five walk in clinics also can take care of bone fractures, and these clinics can deal with shallow cuts with stitches and disinfectants, and they can take care of upper respiratory problems or allergies or rashes, too. They may also include a pharmacy where drug prescriptions can be refilled. But if a person is suffering a more serious and particular health problem, certain types of walk in clinics may be needed instead.
Detox Centers
One such health problem may be a drug addiction, and many Americans are addicted to drugs, often painkillers such as heroin. How often are Americans abusing these drugs? As of 2015, some 20.5 million Americans aged 12 and up suffered a substance abuse problem, and from among them, two million had a drug abuse problem related to prescription pain relievers, which included 591,000 people addicted to heroin in particular. This can wreak havoc on a person’s life in many ways, including loss of a job, loss of friends and contact with family, bad spending habits, and even homelessness, and that is not even counting the actual danger of drug addiction. Abusing drugs such as heroin can be deadly; drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States today, and 52,404 lethal drug overdoses took place in 2015 alone.
Concerned friends and family members can help someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, and an intervention can convince the addict to seek help. This usually starts with visiting a type of clinic known as a detox center, where the addict will be safe under medical supervision as they allow themselves to detox. This involves unpleasant physical symptoms ranging from goosebumps to vomiting to insomnia and even seizures in some cases, but it is necessary so that a person can clean themselves of the substance and then seek rehab services with a counselor, therapist, or a program.