It’s past your primary care physician’s office hours, and you’re having a medical situation and wondering where you should go. Unless it’s a true emergency, going to an urgent care clinic can be a great alternative to heading to the hospital.
Let’s delve into the specific reasons you should consider going to an urgent care clinic instead of the hospital if you have a non-life-threatening medical situation that still warrants immediate intervention.
Convenience
Convenience is one of the prime drawing cards of urgent care facilities. If you go to a hospital, you will have to wait for several hours in a crowded waiting room to get treated. With going to an urgent care facility, on the other hand, you will only have to wait less than an hour, as there’s far lower patient volume. You will be seen and treated on a first-come, first-served basis, unlike the hospital emergency room, where you will be served based on the severity of your condition.
Affordable, High-Quality Care
The overhead cost of visiting an urgent care center is much lower compared to going to a hospital. An Annals of Internal Medicine study supports this, stating that the average cost of three common illnesses — middle ear infection, pharyngitis, and urinary tract infection — in urgent care centers are roughly less than $200, whereas a visit to the hospital’s emergency department may cost you about $2000.
The bottom line is that medical care is much more affordable at urgent care centers than in hospitals. Even without an insurance, you can still get the same quality of treatment at an urgent care clinic, but without having to worry that it might cost a fortune.
Reliable, High-Quality Healthcare Services
Many people prefer to visit hospitals for minor medical problems, thinking that they will get better care than when they go to urgent care centers, but that’s not always the case. In fact, urgent care clinics are staffed with highly qualified physicians and staff who have extensive training in emergency medicine, and thus, you can rest assured that the quality of care you receive is the same as—if not, better than—that you get in hospitals.
Urgent care physicians can treat a wide variety of minor injuries and acute medical conditions, such as respiratory tract infections (e.g., the flu), urinary tract infections, asthma, bronchitis, digestive problems, minor burns, minor fractures, among others.
Urgent care facilities also offer a vast range of on-site healthcare services, including, diagnostic and medical imaging services, blood work, drug testing, abscess incision and drainage, vaccines (e.g., tetanus, flu, etc.), school physicals, and more, so you can get everything taken care of in one visit, just like going to a hospital.
Urgent Care Clinic in Fairless Hills, PA
For efficient, high-quality urgent care without the worry about cracking your nest egg, visit Patient Care Now Urgent Care. We are staffed with highly credentialed emergency medical providers whose foremost goal is to ensure the highest patient satisfaction level.
We are open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If you want to know more about our services, call us at (267) 202-6433. If you have an urgent medical need, simply walk in—no appointment is necessary. However, you may wish to check in online for your added convenience.