Americans often need proper medical care during their lives, and they may choose to visit either an urgent care clinic (sometimes known as walk in clinics), or get emergency care for chest pain, broken bones, and worse. It’s important that when someone nearby needs medical care, a responsible adult can find local medical services right away and take the victim there. This may involve searching for 24 hour walk in clinics or emergency clinics online with a PC or mobile device, with queries such as “convenient care near me San Diego CA” or “childrens urgent care Miami FL” to find local clinics. This search can show some nearby clinics and their names, addresses, and hours of operation (not all are 24 hour clinics). This search can be further refined with the seeker’s ZIP code or a phrase such as “skip the wait urgent care”. When someone looks for “skip the wait urgent care”, they are finding a clinic where they can make an appointment for care and get it as soon as they arrive. This can be quite helpful, and “skip the wait urgent care Boston MA” or “childrens skip the wait urgent care” can be a great way to find such services.
Types of Care
It should be noted that urgent and emergency care are not, in fact, the same thing, and some clinics are specialized to provide one sort of care but not the other. Mixing them up could mean trouble. The good news, though, is that some clinics offer both and are hybrid urgent and emergency medical care centers for patients’ convenience. This fact may be listed online when a seeker is looking up local care clinics. The staff and medicine at such a clinic will be varied enough to treat nearly any patient, for medical problems both minor and major.
Emergency care is for life-threatening wounds or illnesses that must be taken care of at once. Often, Americans get emergency care either at specialized clinics or at a hospital’s ER, and the doctors and physicians there will have the training and tools needed to save a life. Major medical issues such as serious chest pain or difficulty breathing are a common reason to get emergency care, and the same is true of major trauma such as broken arms or legs, head or eye wounds, or even damaged internal organs or heavy bleeding. Stab or bullet wounds are also common reasons to get emergency care. It may be noted, though, that an emergency clinic or hospital ER is best reserved for patients who truly need it, and around 44-65% of all ER episodes can and should have been handled at urgent care clinics instead.
What about urgent care? This describes the medical care for non life-threatening, more minor illnesses or wounds, and many thousands of urgent care clinics can be found across the United States today. They tend to be small and independent, although they sometimes form small local networks with one another. They are often found in strip malls for convenience, although others may in fact be built into retailers or even hospitals in some cases. Retail clinics are found in major retailers such as Target or Wal-Mart and others, and often include a pharmacy for shoppers’ convenience. Hospital urgent clinics are inside hospitals, as the name suggests, but they offer distinct service from the hospital at large. It is possible to visit such a clinic for treatment and leave while ignoring the actual hospital the entire time.
Urgent care clinics can treat minor problems such as skin rashes from allergies or poison ivy with lotion and ointment, and the nurse practitioners and physicians there can also offer stitches and bandages for shallow cuts. Many such clinics can also take care of bone fractures and ankle or wrist sprains as well. Patients may also get medicinal relief against the common cold and flu.
In other cases, someone may look up a “skip the wait urgent care” center, meaning they set up an appointment there at a particular time, and can get medical treatment as soon as they arrive. This may be helpful for someone with a busy schedule who only has certain narrow windows of free time in their day or week.