Why You Should Use an Urgent Care Center vs. Emergency Room

The popularity of urgent care in the United States has soared in the recent past leading to the rapid expansion of these medical facilities. At these centers, you receive medical services if the condition is not life-threatening but still needs immediate attention. Therefore, you never again have to deal with the lack of enough space or physicians, which is a common issue at emergency facilities. Here are six reasons why you should opt to receive medical services from an urgent care center instead of an emergency room. 

1. Shorter waits 

At an urgent care clinic, you usually are attended within a much shorter duration in comparison to an emergency center. Research carried out by the Urgent Care Association of America shows that the average waiting time for over 80% of patients before they can receive treatment is only 15 minutes or less. However, in hospitals, you may need to wait for hours before a doctor attends to your needs. Thus, at urgent care centers, you are guaranteed treatment without long delays. 

2. Less expensive 

The services offered at urgent care centers are less costly and easily affordable compared to those of emergency centers. Additionally, you will not get charged for additional hidden costs such as bed rents, staff fees, and doctor’s fees. Therefore, if you do not have an insurance cover, urgent care centers are the ideal choice since you will not end up paying a colossal amount for emergency care services. According to a recent study, the cost you incur in emergency rooms is about 700% higher for the same level of medical services you would receive at an urgent care center. 

3. High-quality care 

You are guaranteed high-quality care at an urgent care center since research shows that 94% of these centers have a minimum of one full-time medical practitioner on duty. Thus, when you go to these centers, you can be confident that the quality of services you are getting is better in comparison to emergency centers. 

4. Accessibility

Urgent care centers are usually easily accessible from your home since approximately 75% of these facilities are found in rural and suburban areas. Nevertheless, you are required to travel to urban places to access an emergency center since 55% of these amenities are located in urban regions. Moreover, the average number of emergency rooms is lower compared to that of urgent care centers. Therefore, you most certainly are better off receiving services from urgent care clinics if you want to accelerate your healing process. 

5. Convenience

Many of the urgent care centers are open seven days a week, and about 70% of these facilities start offering medicals services by 8 AM, whereas 2% of these clinics extend past 9 PM. So, if you are looking to receive numerous kinds of medical services such as Digital X-Rays, and rapid testing between these hours, you can be confident of receiving proper medical attention.  

6. No appointments necessary 

At urgent care centers, you do not need to make an appointment with a doctor for you to receive medical treatment. Therefore, you need to walk into an urgent care center and have a doctor attend you within a short period.