Many people may not be aware of the advantages of urgent care clinics. In addition to urgent care services being available for additional hours, there is also considerably less waiting time to see a physician or a mid-level provider, such as a physician’s assistant. Since a group of physicians, or in some cases, a single physician, own about half of all urgent care centers, patients will receive excellent medical care from a licensed and experienced professional.
Hours of Operation for Urgent Care Facilities
Recent information shows that a large percentage of urgent care facilities have extended hours throughout the week. Over 66% of these, for example, are open before 9:00 a.m. from Monday through Friday. On Saturdays, 45.7% of these clinics are open to see patients, and on Sundays, 31.1% are as well.
Most urgent care facilities will stay open for patients until 7:00 p.m. or even later during the weeknights. This amounts to 90.6% of these centers. Two out of every five of these facilities will also remain open until 9:00 p.m. or later to accommodate patient needs.
While each walk in clinic is unique, patients only need to wait about 15 minutes at approximately 60% of these facilities. Furthermore, 65% of urgent care clinics always have a physician available at their site. The Urgent Care Association of America conducted a recent survey on the time it took for patients to be seen. This survey showed that 57% of the patients waited just 15 minutes of less, and roughly 80% of these visits lasted for an hour or less.
Services Provided at Urgent Care Facilities
Advantage urgent care provides a variety of services. In addition to intravenous fluids, when needed, an urgent care provider can also treat sinus and ear infections. Furthermore, when someone believes they may have strep throat, this, too, can be tested for and treated. In the event that someone may have broken their ankle or sustained another type of fracture, an advantage urgent care can also administer X-rays and treat fractures. Preventative treatments, such as flu vaccinations, are also available through urgent care services.
It’s important to note that not all walk in clinics are able to provide intravenous fluids or treat fractures. When needed, however, 70% of the urgent care locations are able to provide intravenous fluids. If someone sustains a fracture, 80% of urgent care centers are able to evaluate and provide treatment for this.
Other Convenient Services Available at Urgent Care Facilities
There are other advantages to visiting an urgent care center. This is because 40% of these facilities utilize electronic prescription ordering systems, which is an added convenience for many patients. Even more of these facilities have computerized systems that enable medical staff to view lab and imaging results. Patient demographics can be collected, stored, and made available as well. Billing, condition and procedure coding, and clinical notes are also available due to these state-of-the-art systems.
Learn More About Advantage Urgent Care
Given that many people choose to go to a traditional hospital emergency room when they aren’t injured or ill enough to be admitted, it’s important to learn more about the services available through advantage urgent care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, reported that 48% of the adult patients that visited the emergency room did so because it was after their physician’s office hours.
Given that the aforementioned individuals weren’t seriously injured or ill enough to be admitted to the hospital, they paid a much steeper price for their treatment. Since an urgent care visit costs considerably less than one at a traditional hospital emergency room, it makes sense to learn more about what urgent care clinics can provide.
It’s also important to note that patients don’t need to make advance appointments. Since there’s also less waiting time to be seen and appointments cost less than emergency room visits, these are all added benefits to exploring the services offered by an urgent care clinic near you.