Scott Biggs, PA-C
Urgent Care Centers provide an alternative for good care! Imagine it’s Friday afternoon and you have a sore throat. It’s been bothering you for a few days now. As the morning went by today it has steadily gotten worse. You took some ibuprofen and had some hot soup for lunch, but it only helped a little. Obviously, nobody wants to be sick for the weekend, so you call your Primary Care Provider to see if they can squeeze you in this afternoon before they close. Of course, they are completely booked this afternoon but can get you in Monday morning if you are interested. And then comes the phrase nobody wants to hear… “If you feel like you can’t wait until Monday, you can always go to the Emergency Room”.
Great. Who wants to go to the Emergency Room on a Friday afternoon? Who wants to wait for hours to be seen and treated, get exposed to God knows-what, and then pay an outrageous copay!? What if there was another option?
Thankfully, modern medicine has come to the rescue again! The Urgent Care model gives patients who are sick, injured, and need to be seen the same day another option. Most Urgent Care Clinics work on a first come-first served walk-in basis. They treat all manor of minor illnesses and injuries. Urgent care centers, often charge a greatly reduced insurance copay when compared to the ER. What is the difference besides cost and convenience?
Different Models of Care
The majority of ERs are staffed 24/7 by a team of physicians, PAs, NPs, RNs, x-ray techs, lab techs, and respiratory therapists. Patients have access to numerous specialists to treat and stabilize almost any illness or injury imaginable. ERs are designed to care for patients who are experiencing life and limb threatening illnesses and injuries. They are very good at it. However, because of these readily available resources, at your service 24 hours a day, the costs associated with ER visits are high. We don’t need these resources for the basic sore throat, cough, earache, sprain, and laceration. That’s where Urgent Care comes in.
Urgent care clinics are designed to see lower acuity patients who are ill or injured. This means they are not likely to require the numerous resources offered by an ER. Urgent Care centers are usually staffed by PAs and NPs. Some include physicians on site. They have Medical Assistants or Paramedics to assist in patient care. They are usually able to run basic urinalysis, CBC, EKG, and x-rays on site as well as set up for urgent outpatient advanced imaging studies such as CT and MRI. Most Urgent Care clinics are able to suture basic lacerations and treat most simple fractures and sprains. Some will even offer to refill medications used to treat chronic illnesses such as diabetes or hypertension. In these cases it is usually expected that the patient has a PCP and there is an extenuating circumstance preventing that person from providing a refill.
Acuity is Everything in Urgent Care
Unfortunately, Urgent Care clinics are not able to effectively diagnose, treat, and manage more complex illnesses such as chest pain, weakness, stroke, or surgical emergencies. These patients are better served in the ER setting. However, they will often seek treatment at the Urgent Care due to cost or convenience. It is not always easy to convince these patients that they need to be evaluated in the ER. Most often, it is because they do not understand the limitations of the Urgent Care.
On the other hand, many patients seek treatment in the ER for minor injuries and illnesses. This Is often because they do not understand that they could be seen and treated in an Urgent Care by providers who have a similar background to the ER providers. They may also not know that this can be done for a much lower cost and take considerably less time. I feel that we owe it to our patients to explain to them that if they are suffering from a minor illness or injury and wish to be seen the same day but cannot be accommodated by their PCP, they may be best served by going to a local Urgent Care for evaluation and treatment.
They will receive high-quality care and prompt service, often with a copay that is not much more than a usual office visit. If they are deemed by the Urgent Care to be beyond the scope of that facility, then they will be sent to the ER for further evaluation and treatment.
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