Many people have had the experience or have been through the experience with a loved one, of needing emergency care. The traditional route for most people seeking emergency care is to visit the emergency room of the local hospital. What also comes with a traditional visit to the emergency room is the traditional long, agonizing wait for a doctor to treat an injury and recommending a follow-up visit with your regular doctor. Not many emergency room visits are pleasant. Most people would much rather be treated by a doctor familiar with them in a place that is also familiar. That is why next care urgent care is the emergency room care of the future, available right now.
What is urgent care? Next care urgent care is a category of care that focuses on the administering of ambulatory care in a dedicated medical facility that is outside of a traditional emergency room of a hospital. These centers treat injuries and illness that requires emergency care but is not serious enough for an emergency room visit. Most urgent care facilities are walk-in clinics and have extended hours. The majority of next care urgent care centers are open until 7:00pm and two out of five remain open until 9:00pm or later.
Urgent care facilities have gained in popularity over the last few years. Approximately one out of every five centers have at least 450 patients per week. One of the main benefits is that patients can be seen by a doctor in a much shorter amount of time when compared to a traditional emergency room. According to the Urgent Care Association of America, 57% of patients wait less than 15 minutes to be seen by a doctor, while 80% of all visits are concluded in under 60 minutes.
When it comes to next care urgent care practice, most physicians have a vested stake in the urgent care practice they are running. A single physician, or a group of doctors, owns almost half of the urgent care facilities in operation. This means that patient care in an urgent care facility is much more personal. When the doctors are able to form a personal relationship with you, when you are injured or become ill, you will feel comfortable and confident when you return to the facility.
Most urgent care facilities provide almost all of the services of an emergency room such as fracture treatment, intravenous fluids when needed, and electronic prescription ordering systems. The convenience of visiting an urgent care facility becomes more and more apparent the more you compare the urgent care services to the traditional services at the hospital.
