Learn More About Emergency Medical and Urgent Care Services
If you walk-in urgent care centers, there are various similar traits. Similarly, some features set some urgent care centers apart. How can I get emergency clinics around me? Do I need an appointment at the emergency doctor’s office? Where can I get the best emergency service physicians?
Receiving your emergency room advice is as easy as conducting an online check and availing yourself at the urgent care center. There are no appointments to book for urgent health care services. The best urgent care centers have a convenient location, especially in a densely populated neighborhood.
It will help if you choose an urgent care facility with state-of-the-art technology and vital diagnostic imaging devices. Receiving urgent health care should be a restorative experience.
For this reason, you need top-notch emergency room advice. Seek an urgent care facility with trained personnel.
It is vital to ensure the staffs working in the facility have the proper documentation. How long has the facility offered the emergency services? The best facility to seek emergency room advice has been in the sector for several years. With this, you are guaranteed quality health care services. Your health is essential; pursue the best services.
When you need convenient medical treatment, have you considered visiting an urgent care center in your neighborhood? Currently, there are 20,000 physicians that practice Urgent Care Medicine throughout the United States. This recognized medical specialty is becoming a fast-growing field and provides a broad range of services.
Traditional Hospital Emergency Room Visits
Americans, in general, tend to rely on the care provided at hospital emergency rooms. This is due, in part, to the fact that these facilities provide individuals and their families with 24-hour access to care. Another reason may be due to a lack of knowledge or awareness of what may constitute a life-threatening emergency. There are many injuries, illnesses, and conditions that will obviously call for a hospital visit, such as severe wounds, heart attacks or strokes, however.
Recent Studies Comparing Hospital Emergency Visits with Urgent Care Visits
Several studies have been conducted on the incidence of patients using the services of a traditional hospital emergency room as opposed to an urgent care facility. They have found that in many cases, urgent care clinics would have been able to provide the necessary care.
Over the past 10 years, for example, hospital emergency room visits have actually increased by 22%. A considerable amount of these visits could have been addressed at an urgent care facility, according to a 2009 RAND Corp. study. This was the case for 14% to 27% of these traditional emergency room visits. If these patients were being seen at an urgent care facility instead, roughly $4.4 billion could be saved in health care costs.
A Truven Health Analytics report indicated that over 70% of patients with consumer-sponsored insurance coverage visited emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions. Furthermore, many of these conditions could have been preventable if these individuals had sought basic outpatient care prior to visiting the hospital.
Millman conducted a private study on this issue. It was found that 44% to 65% of the emergency room visits could have been taken care of at an urgent care clinic as well.
The Benefits of Urgent Care
In 2014 alone, most of the urgent care centers operated 7 days a week. Many of these centers were open a minimum of 4 hours a day. The average center tends to have 7 exam and treatment rooms in order to accommodate their patients.
The American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine reports that on average, urgent care physicians will be able to assist 4.5 patients every hour. This will depend, of course, on whether or not each patient’s condition is severe or acute.
Patients may only need to wait up to 15 minutes to see a mid-level provider or physician at around 60% of urgent care clinics. Furthermore, 65% of these facilities have an on-site physician all of the time. It’s also important to note that approximately 50% of these centers are owned and operated by an individual physician or physician group.
The costs associated with urgent care are less than hospital emergency room visits. When a situation that could have been treated at an urgent care clinic is treated in a hospital emergency room instead, it can cost an average of $2,039.00. When considering that this same case could be treated at an urgent care facility for about $226.00, there are notable savings.
The average reimbursement for urgent care visits is $103.00 per patient visit. For hospital emergency room visits, however, the average reimbursement is $302.00.00.
Recent figures indicate that there are roughly 110 million emergency room visits made every year. Since it’s clear that a significant percentage of these patients could be treated at an urgent care clinic, it’s important that more individuals become aware of this convenient medical treatment option.
You can receive convenient medical treatment at a walk in urgent care center near you. These centers provide both urgent and emergency care without the wait or costs associated with traditional hospital emergency room services. Furthermore, convenient medical treatment is available for a variety of health issues, including family urgent care.