Urgent Care Clinics - The Information You Need

It wasn't that long ago that you had two choices when there was something wrong with your health. If it was an emergency, you headed to the ER or called an ambulance. If it wasn't, you called your doctor and made an appointment. Unfortunately, there were plenty of things that slipped somewhere between the two concepts. What if you had a cold? By the time you made an appointment with your doctor, the cold would have likely healed on its own. At the same time, you probably didn't feel like sitting in an ER, being bypassed by more serious injuries and illnesses for five or six hours. Today, there is a third option, called urgent care. These clinics provide solutions for people who don't have injuries or illnesses serious enough for the ER, but don't want to wait for a doctor's appointment.

Cost and Payment

How much you pay to visit an urgent care clinic will usually depend on your insurance situation. If your insurance is covering the fee, you can expect to pay a small upfront payment while your company takes care of the rest. If you don't have insurance or your plan doesn't cover the clinic, you can expect to find a much more affordable fee than you would find at the hospital. Most of these clinics are more than happy to take patients without insurance coverage and they tailor their fees to prices a real person could expect to pay. This is entirely unlike the hospital, which is tailored to bill an insurance company, thus the prices are exorbitant.

No Appointments Needed

You rarely need an appointment to visit an urgent care clinic. The concept of needing to make an appointment would entirely defeat their purpose. While this means you will have to wait until it's your turn to be seen, you can almost always expect your wait to be far shorter than it would be in the ER. This is one of the selling points of such an establishment, so they try to make sure each patient is seen quickly, while still ensuring they get the proper care. Patients are designed to be seen on a first come-first served basis, so you won't have to worry about a situation like the ER, where minor injuries and illnesses are constantly pushed back to make room for more serious health emergencies.

Medical Professionals

If you've ever been told that urgent care clinics aren't staffed by medical doctors and nurses, but rather technicians with lower levels of medical knowledge, you were misinformed. These clinics must, by law, be staffed with medical doctors and teams, so you can be certain that you will receive a standard level of care.