When you need to visit the doctor, you might look at a few different factors. Cost, availability and doctors ratings can certainly factor into your decision for treatment. What people overlook all too often, however, is the viability of urgent care facilities. People worry that doctors ratings will not be up to standards at a walk in clinic and often prefer to opt for an emergency room visit, but this is a fallacy. Urgent care doctors ratings have been consistently high, and more doctors than ever are choosing to practice medicine at a medical walk in clinic. In fact, at least 20,000 doctors practice at an urgent care facility today.

There are many benefits to going to an urgent care or walk in clinic as opposed to an emergency room. In many cases, an emergency room visit just isn’t necessary. For people without insurance or a primary care physician, or without the time to take off work to schedule a doctor’s appointment, an urgent care center can provide all the same treatment as an emergency room for a fraction of the wait time and a sliver of the cost. Urgent care centers are open almost always, with over 80% of all urgent care facilities open every day of the week. Urgent care centers, sometimes thought of as only able to treat minor concerns and ailments, are actually equipped to deal with bigger maladies as well. In fact, 4 out of 5 medical walk in clinics can diagnose and treat fractures.

But urgent cares can, of course, handle the small things as well. Ankle sprains, though less serious than a fracture, are excessively common. Most ankle sprains (up to 80% of them) are caused by inward rolling of the ankle, an accident that happens frequently to patients. A medical clinic is also equipped and able to deal with illnesses as well. Upper respiratory infections are the most commonly diagnosed ailment at an urgent care, alongside the common cold (of over which one billion occur every single year). It can be important to distinguish between the two and treat accordingly, and urgent care clinics can do so at a fraction of the cost of an emergency room visit.

From doctors ratings to treatment of more serious conditions, urgent cares can truly do (almost) all.