top of page

What You Can Expect From an Urgent Care Clinic

1.jpg

Urgent care is a category of outpatient clinic in the United States specifically focused on the provision of outpatient medical care in an out-patient facility away from a primary emergency hospital. This type of care allows patients to be quickly evaluated and treated by specially trained doctors without admission into a hospital. The main advantage of using this type of care clinic is that it provides immediate access to specialized services for patients who may not be able to be seen in a timely fashion in an acute care hospital. The challenge however is that there are limitations placed on this type of care in terms of access to physicians and expertise of staff. As such, the level of care provided may be below that of other hospitals in a community. Check out the revere health website to get started.


An urgent care clinic may have a waiting list based on how many people you wish to see. Depending on the health issue involved, the number of people on this list may be limited. In the case of an urgent care visit, the physician may direct you to a hospital emergency department. This directs you to the nearest emergency room, where you will be put on a waiting list until a physician can get to you. Once the physician does get to you, he or she will give you a full history and then determine whether or not you need to be seen in a hospital, urgent care unit, or other facility.


Most Urgent Care Clinics provides same day or same-time appointments, but depending on your appointments, you may have to wait several days before seeing a physician. You can still go to an urgent care clinic if you have an urgent situation, but you may have to wait several days to be seen by a specialist. If you choose to go to a hospital emergency room instead, they may have the same requirements as a regular urgent care clinic. They will likely order tests such as blood work, CT scan, and MRI to see if you are safe and can get to a normal routine within a week. Check out the revere health website to get started.


Some urgent care clinics offer medical care to their patients after hours, on weekends or evenings. These clinics will generally have the highest staffs and tend to have wait times of around 8 hours or longer. The waiting time may be shorter for children and families with small children. Many of these clinics will also have pediatricians on staff.


An urgent care clinic that caters to adults may have a few adult patients who have medical issues, such as broken bones, trauma, heart attacks, or COPD. As with any hospital emergency room, these patients will first undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine the cause of the patient's illness and to establish a treatment plan. Once the doctor determines the need for an ER nurse, the nurse will work with the patient to determine the best way to reach him or her-through the emergency room door, across town to the ER, or to a local pharmacy. Once the patient is stabilized, the ER nurse will then assist the ED nurse in stabilizing the patient's condition and providing the necessary treatment.


Urgent care clinics are often an excellent resource for routine doctor visits. Many of them allow patients to make appointments for just a few minutes and walk out with a prescription. The majority of these clinics follow-up visits with an in-house pharmacist to provide replenished prescriptions at no extra charge. Many of these walk-in clinics also offer laboratory services and other resources to their patients.


For more information on urgent care centers, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgent_care_center.

 

bottom of page