Urgent Care Provides a Safe, Low Cost Alternative to ERs

If you have a medical condition that you feel may be serious, you might not be able to wait until your doctor office is open. You may need to go to urgent care to be seen right away. If you are facing a medical emergency, you should go to the E.R. But if it isn’t an emergency, but you need to be seen quickly, an urgent care clinic is often the best way to go. You may wonder- can I make an appointment for urgent care? Yes. Most urgent care centers have a way to reserve a specific time so that you don’t have to wait behind walk-ins to the clinic.

Can I go to urgent care for blood work? It depends on the individual clinic. Some are equipped for blood work while others are less so. Can I go to urgent care for stomach pain? Yes, this is a common complaint that people have, and it’s something that you should definitely be seen for. Can urgent care do casts? Generally, no, they don’t make casts. They can often splint a bone and/or set it after it has been broken. A cast is usually done by a specialist in orthopedic medicine.

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As healthcare costs have rocketed out of control, urgent care Portland centers are a cost effective way to treat non critical injuries. These centers treat illnesses and injuries, such as fracture, sprain, gastrointestinal or upper respiratory problem, that is not serious enough for an emergency room visit. With the tightening of standards for urgent care Portland centers, policymakers see them as a great way to relive emergency room overcrowding and control costs.

Emergency room, or ER, overcrowding has grown in recent years. With the expense of certain non urgent health provisions, ERs are seen as an inexpensive treatment alternative. Unfortunately, ERs have less time and resources to treat truly severe injuries. The Rand Corporation estimates that one in five ER visits could have been treated elsewhere. As ER visits are expensive and time consuming, health insurance providers and policymakers are encouraging urgent car Portland to fill in the gap.

Most urgent care Portland providers now provide urgent care portland as their only service. There are 8,700 such facilities in the U.S, and over half are in freestanding buildings. Interestingly, about 60 percent of urgent care Portland facilities are physician owned, indicating that these facilities do not yet have operating costs that only large healthcare organizations can provide.

Standards for urgent care portland oregon also exist. Since 2009, the Urgent Care Association of America has implemented the Certified Urgent Care Center designation. Such designation ensures a quality and consistency of most urgent care Beaverton standards, and provide a standardized consumer experience.

Despite the unique niche urgent care Portland facilities occupy, the consumer gets the best experience when she collaborates with other professionals. Take STD testing Portland. An urgent care facility can test for STDs, and provide results. That said, the patient cannot begin treatment without consulting a primary care physician. Only by using the doctor Portland of the patient can a comprehensive treatment plan be developed.

Urgent care Portland has come a long way in the past few years. From a low tech version of an ER, an urgent care Portland facility now supplements emergency treatment for non life threatening injuries and illnesses. Policymakers and insurance providers would be wise to promote the growth of these facilities, as well as the drafting of better common standards. References.

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