We’ve all used family medicine to keep ourselves healthy, with routine checkups, preventative care, and the odd cold or flu treatment. While we know the drill with our primary care physician, it is a different story when confronted with an urgent injury or illness. Questions such as where to go, when to go, and health insurance coverage can be a lot to handle under stress. Do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with the answers now, so that when an emergency does arise you know what to do.
Go to Urgent Care When It’s Serious, But Not Really Life (Or Limb!) Threatening.
Part of the stress surrounding the emergency room and urgent care clinics is not knowing what qualifies as one. A heart attack? Sure, go straight to the emergency room, or call 911 if they are incoherent. Over 110 million people visit emergency rooms each year for these very reasons. But what about when it is a persistent sore throat? What about minor burns or back pain? Minor injuries and illnesses are usually seen by your primary care physician.
The truth of the matter is that illnesses tend to worsen outside of your doctor’s office hours. Injuries tend to occur on the weekend. When you find that you need to see a doctor, but your’s is unavailable, it’s time to look for the closest urgent care clinic.
How Do I Need a Doctor For My Problem?
The average wait time is about 15 minutes in about 60% of urgent care facilities, and about 65% of facilities have a physician available at all hours. It is worth noting that the clinics that do have a physician present will advertise this on their site. If you are unsure, ask the front desk who will be treating you.
It may not be necessary to have a doctor inspect your illness or injury, but it is necessary for some of those cases that toe the line between “urgent” and “emergency.” Minor burns or back pain may simply require a prescription for relief, whereas a persistent cough might require a doctor’s knowledge. It just depends what illness or injury you are seeking care for.
Hold On to That Information You Gather On Clinics, You’ll Need It.
The best bet to ensure success is to know where you can go before you need to go there. What does this mean? It means you don’t want to be up at 2:00am on a Saturday morning with a fever and cough, doing a web search for if you need to go to the emergency room, or for urgent care clinics near you.
It’s simply better to have the knowledge beforehand. So, do a web search for the urgent care clinics in your area. Find one with good reviews, that perhaps is also open 24 hours, and offers a wide variety of care, such as for sprains, minor burns or back pain, and so on.
When you know in advance what to do, it removes quite a bit of stress. Being sick or injured is no fun. Make it easier on your future self by having the answers today, so you can be prepared for tomorrow’s mishaps.
