3 Benefits of Visiting Urgent Care

There are times in everyone’s lives when they need to see the doctor on short notice due to an urgent medical situation like difficulty breathing, a severe headache, or fever. Sometimes it’s not possible to make an appointment at the family doctor office and the emergency room might not be desirable either. While going to the ER does grant access to emergency medical physicians, it can also involve uncomfortably long wait times to be seen. Because of this and other issues, it is sometimes preferable to visit an urgent care clinic instead. There are, in fact, multiple benefits to visiting urgent care and this article will look at what some of these benefits are.

• Shorter Wait Time: One benefit of going to an urgent care clinic as opposed to an emergency room is that you will almost always have a shorter wait time to see one of the emergency medical physicians in the building. The vast majority of urgent care centers have wait times of 30 minutes or less, a very short wait time compared to the hours you might have to sit in the ER.
• Treatment for Emergencies and Non-Emergencies: Another benefit of going to an urgent care clinic is that it can provide treatment for emergencies and also medical non-emergencies. By contrast, going to an ER is usually recommended if it’s an absolute emergency and usually isn’t the best place to go if you only have a stomachache or a minor headache. On the other hand, urgent care can help with a wide variety of problems, from abdominal pain, to flu symptoms, to chest pain. The emergency medical physicians that work in urgent care are trained to diagnose a wide variety of problems.
• The Same Level of Care as Your Doctor: A third benefit of going to urgent care is that you’ll be receiving medical care from physicians who are just as skilled as your regular family doctor. Even though this isn’t your regular doctor, even though you may have never met them before, emergency medical physicians are all highly trained and dedicated to providing excellent medical service to each and every patient.

In conclusion there are a number of benefits attached to going to an urgent care instead of the emergency room. These include a shorter wait time, the ability to be treated for emergencies and also non-emergencies, and the fact that you’ll receive the same level of care as you would at your family doctor office. Keep these benefits in mind the next time you choose between going to the emergency room or urgent care.