When Your Doctor Isn't In: How Urgent Care Can Help

Posted on: 17 May 2017

If you need medical care but your doctor doesn't have any openings, urgent care can help. While it is usually recommended that you call your primary care doctor first, circumstances don't always make this possible. If you are away on vacation or it's the weekend and your doctor isn't in, a trip to urgent care can take care of your medical needs without having to go into the emergency room. You won't have to spend as much time waiting for care at urgent care. If you go to the emergency room with a non-emergency, you may end up being passed over for hours as more serious cases come in.

Urgent Care Provides Immediate Care for Illness or Injury

Whether you need a few stitches because of an injury, or you want your child checked for an ear infection, urgent care will get the job done quickly. While an emergency room visit may be necessary in the event of of an injury that needs many stitches, you can get the care you need from urgent care when the injury is small. Urgent care handles matters that can wait, while an emergency room is ready to handle a wide variety of crises.

When You Need a Medication Refill

If you need a medication refill and you aren't able to reach your primary care doctor's office, urgent care may be able to help. While urgent care is unlikely to provide you with pain medication, you may be able to get a small refill for a prescription that you rely on every day for your health. 

Urgent Care Can Provide Diagnostic Testing and Treatment Your Primary Care Doctor Can't

When you are having a problem that may need further diagnostic testing, urgent care can give you the testing and treatment you need all in one place. Instead of going to your primary care doctor, only to find out you need x-Rays, you can prevent the need for going to yet another place by heading to urgent care instead. You will be able to get the testing you need, and if treatment is necessary, you'll get treatment too. Your urgent care provider can give you necessary breathing treatments, for example, that your primary care physician won't.

The next time you need to medical advice and you don't feel as though it's a true emergency, you can head to an urgent care clinic to give you the treatment you need.

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