Urgent Care Clinic

Urgent care is a relatively new category of medical facility devoted solely to the delivery of urgent medical care in an independent medical facility away from a regular emergency room. Unlike an ER, an urgent care center has a high turnover rate due to the fact that it is often used for patients who have already arrived at the hospital and may not be stabilized before being sent to the ER. There are generally three types of services that an urgent care clinic may offer: elective, hospital-related, and surgical. Since elective services tend to be elective as well, it is often that clinics choose to only offer these services. This can mean that the center may not have any emergency services such as an ambulance.
An urgent care clinic has many of the same features as an ER. Get more info on the Medical Services near you. The primary difference between an urgent care clinic and an ER is that patients are treated in the shortest turnaround time possible since all patients arrive at the facility within the shortest amount of time regardless of the reason for their visit. This means that a physician can see more patients in a shorter period of time while also saving time for the attending physician or other necessary staff. The physician can also treat more patients in less time due to the shorter wait time. In addition, there are often more medical professionals present in an urgent care clinic than in an ER due to the clinics often serving smaller communities.
Because of the shorter wait times, patients may be able to receive better medical care at a faster pace. This is important when patients are waiting to have an operation or treatment performed or waiting to be seen by a specific specialist. For example, a patient could be waiting in an ER for an orthodontist, but be given a referral to an orthodontist in a matter of minutes instead of hours. This allows the physician to take more time to properly diagnose a problem, so that the patient can get back to normal life sooner.
Unlike a hospital emergency department, an urgent care clinic may not have the same amount of equipment and staff that an emergency room has. However, many Urgent Care Clinics is staffed with highly skilled practitioners who work with a staff of other doctors and nurses. Some clinics even have a pulmonologist or psychiatrist on staff. This ensures that a patient is receiving top-quality care. Since some medical conditions require the expertise of more than one practitioner, the presence of multiple specialists on staff helps to speed up procedures and prevent emergencies from occurring.
A patient may be seen by an ER physician, but then be sent to an Urgent Care Clinic for a more appropriate treatment. View here for more info. This could mean that the patient would be sent home, received prescription refills or perhaps be referred to a general hospital emergency room physician for further evaluation. The difference between the two primary treatment venues is that a hospital emergency room physician can only provide treatment for patients that he or she treats in the emergency room. While an Urgent Care Clinic can treat patients of all ages and with a wide variety of illnesses, it has been shown that younger patients tend to be seen more often by ER physicians and that older patients tend to be seen more often by specialty physicians or psychiatrists.
Urgent care clinics also help patients connect with local support services. Many clinics have links to local HIV/AIDS organizations, substance abuse and family counseling services. Because they specialize in helping patients in crisis, many offer emotional support as well as medical support. Some clinics even offer weekend programs, retreats and workshops that can help patients deal with the stress of being hospitalized or recuperating from an illness. Learn more from https://www.britannica.com/science/health-care.