Whenever someone is hurt or ill, they should be taken to local clinics for professional treatments and services at the hands of doctors and nurses. A nearby party, such as a parent or friend of the victim, can look up these treatments and services online, and find out the name, address, and hours of operation of nearby urgent care centers or emergency care clinics. Not all walk in clinics or emergency are sites are open all day, though, so if the patient needs help at an odd time of day, the helper should look up treatments and services with a search such as “24 hour emergency care.” A search may also look like “urgent care clinics in Frisco TX” or “24 hour walk in clinics near San Dimas CA”, to narrow down the search further. So, what sort of injuries call for emergency room visits, and when would an urgent care center do better? After all, urgent care and emergency care are hardly the same thing.
Getting Emergency Care
Not all treatments and services are the same. More specifically, urgent care is best for minor wounds and illnesses, while emergency care is essential for serious or even life-threatening injuries or conditions. Take note that some clinics today are actually hybrids, offering both emergency and urgent care side by side for maximum flexibility. This is helpful whenever it’s not clear what level of are a patient needs, and such hybrid clinics might come up in a search for either urgent care or emergency care.
Emergency care is expensive and slow compared to urgent care, but it can get a life out of danger. A patient must be taken to the ER, for example, if they have suffered large broken bones, or if they have experienced a head or eyeball injury. The same is true if the patient has suffered from bullet wounds or stab wounds, which often are bleeding heavily and involve internal organ damage. Chest pain and difficulty breathing will also merit a visit to the ER, since such conditions may turn life-threatening at any moment (if they are not so already). A patient also needs emergency care if they just suffered a stroke, heart attack, or drowning. And what about abdominal pain? Most cases of such pain are actually harmless, but if that pain is sudden, severe, and/or long lasting, then emergency care is a good idea since the pain’s underlying cause can be serious (cancer or internal bleeding, for example).
Treatments and Services for Minor Wounds
Meanwhile, urgent care and walk in clinics are the best choice for health issues that are not serious enough for the ER. It is expensive and time consuming to visit the ER for minor issues, and this takes up space that a victim in dire condition will need. Fortunately, the urgent care business is a big one, and over 2,500 urgent care sites can be found across the United States today. These are small, independent medical sites staffed with nurse practitioners and physicians, and sometimes, those clinics form small networks with one another. If such a clinic is running smoothly, it may see three patients per hour or so, and a guest may expect a wait time of around 15 minutes. As for where to find them, many urgent care clinics can be found in strip malls, and others are retail clinics, built into large retailers such as Target or Walgreen’s. Some are built into hospital, offering staff and services separate from those of the hospital itself.
Patients may visit these clinics to access the pharmacy inside and get a prescription drug refill, which is common in retail clinics for the convenience of shoppers. During influenza season, many guests can visit urgent care centers for medicinal relief from the common cold and flu. As for physical ailments, four in five urgent care clinics can offer treatment for bone fractures, and nearly all of them can also provide treatment for wrist and ankle sprains as well. A clinic’s staff can provide lotion and other medicine for cases of sunburn and skin rashes, as well as stitches and bandages for shallow cuts. Upper respiratory issues are another reason why many Americans visit local walk in clinics for medical help.
