Urgent care and local walk-in clinics are much more than a last resort for patients that can’t see their doctor. In fact, urgent care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants can provide high-quality medical services for patients.
In addition, an urgent care center offers various other benefits and advantages outside of traditional medical facilities. But many patients may not know this off the top of their heads and instead opt to wait for their primary care provider or the emergency room for medical services.
So what should patients know about the benefits of urgent care?
Urgent Care is usually less expensive than other medical facilities
The great news about using urgent care is that patients will only pay a fraction of the cost of another type of medical provider.
On average, an urgent care center will provide services such as x-rays and sore throat treatment almost 80 percent less than an emergency room, per an analysis on healthcare spending from debt.org. A major benefit of using urgent care for sudden medical needs is that patients won’t have to worry about the significant cost of an ER for treatment.
Patients that may not be able to afford emergency room treatment should always consider urgent care as a viable option whenever they need it.
Urgent Care wait times are much shorter than the ER or your doctor’s office
Patients that want care at their doctor’s office will usually have to schedule an appointment to get treatment. With urgent care, you’ll only have to wait a few minutes in order to get your medical needs addressed.
Urgent care centers and their respective walk-in clinics allow patients to get treatment on the same day without the need for an appointment. Additionally, patients will only have to wait a few minutes to get seen, complete treatment, and pay for services.
Any patient that wants to visit an ER may seriously need to consider using urgent care because ER wait times can be extensive. Unless a patient is experiencing a full-blown medical emergency, the wait for an ER visit can be up to a couple of hours!
FirstCall Medical Center provides a fast and affordable urgent care option for patients in Laurel, MD
So now that you can see the benefits of urgent care you’ll need to find a local walk-in clinic that can address your immediate healthcare needs. Any patient located in Laurel, MD should try FirstCall Medical Center to get a variety of healthcare services.
Call us at 410-730-3399 for more information or visit us directly at 10981 Johns Hopkins Road for a variety of medical services including:
- STD testing
- Injury treatment
- X-rays
- Flu shots
- Lab testing
- DOT physicals
- School & Camp physicals