What Illnesses and Injuries do they Treat at an Urgent Care Center?
The doctors at the Urgent Care Clinic should have the knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat conditions including:
· Illnesses such as fever, flu, a cold, or a stomach virus
· Muscle strains and sprains
· Minor broken bones that do not protrude through the skin, fractures in the fingers and toes
· Cuts that don’t involve much blood, but might need to be stitched
· Breathing difficulties, such as mild asthma attacks
· Accidents and falls
· Eye irritation and redness
· Diagnostic services, including X-rays and laboratory tests
· Moderate back problems
· Severe sore throat or cough
· Skin rashes and infections
· Urinary tract infections
· Vomiting, diarrhea, or dehydration
How Qualified are the Doctors at the Urgent Care Center?
You can trust that your urgent care physician should be able to arrive at an initial diagnosis and provide beginning care for any of the above mentioned minor emergencies. Sometimes, these will be the same conditions that can be treated in a hospital emergency room. Your doctor will treat your immediate condition, and may also consult with a specialist if your illness or injury requires this. Urgent Care doctors want to provide the best care, and will take this extra step if they believe it is necessary. If the illness or injury is beyond the scope of the urgent care center, the doctor will refer you for direct hospitalization, or to the nearest emergency room. While urgent care doctors have a lot of training and knowledge, a real emergency requires specialized care and diagnostic tests that may be beyond what is available at an urgent care clinic, and the doctors there will tell you if you need a higher level of diagnosis or treatment. While your urgent care doctor has the training and experience needed for emergency medicine, the proper place for some acute or life-threatening injuries and conditions is the hospital emergency room.
Urgent Care Centers Provide a Necessary Piece of the Health Care Puzzle
So, if you have an earache, a cold, the flu or a stomach virus, the physicians at the urgent care center will provide you with appropriate care. It is what they are qualified to do. Also, the wait to be seen by a physician will probably be much shorter at an urgent care facility than at an emergency room, and the cost will be lower.
But, if you are having trouble breathing, chest pains, or a bone protruding through your skin…any true “medical emergency,” proceed directly to the emergency room.
Urgent care clinics offer treatment of minor emergencies by qualified physicians at convenient times, with short wait times, often at a lower cost. That makes them a perfect addition to the matrix of treatment centers available in any good health care system.
Patient Care Now Urgent Care in Fairless Hills is here for you 7 days a week, and you can even check in online! We have board-certified emergency medicine doctors here to help from 8am-8pm, and 8am-6pm on weekends. Call (267) 202-6443 today for more information about the services we provide.
