The trip to Alaska did not go exactly as planned.
Clear back in November you asked your husband for just one Christmas gift: a roundtrip ticket to Anchorage, Alaska, for your daughter’s college gymnastics meet the first week in March. Because you made the gift request so early, the tickets were actually very affordable. With a price tag of just under $400, your husband made the purchase and you immediately moving into the planning mode.
Making a list of what clothes to take, reading up on the Iditarod which would have its ceremonial start during your visit, working some extra shifts at work to earn some spending money, and talking to the other parents who were planning to make the trip.
What you did not plan for, however, was a visit to get urgent care services for your daughter.
When you arrived at the practice that parents were invited to, you immediately noticed that your daughter was not working her skills on one of the four beams in the gym. Instead, she was laying down on a mat a few feet from the coach. A few questions later you discovered that your daughter had a fever, a very sore throat, and a painful headache. The coach suggested that you find the closest urgent care services and get a couple of tests. Mainly, the coach wanted to rule out that your daughter did not have the flu. She feared that a flu virus could knock out the whole team in these all important last three weeks of the college gymnastics season.
Fortunately, the flu test was negative and your daughter was able to get a prescription for her strep throat virus. Within 24 hours your daughter was looking and feeling better, and although she was not strong enough to compete in either of the two meets scheduled for the weekend, she was able to enjoy many of the other team activities that were scheduled.
Urgent Care Services Provide Economical, Reliable, and Convenient Care
No one wants to be sick.
Getting sick on vacation or when you are out of town for others purposes can be especially frustrating. Fortunately, being sick when you are away from home does not have to be the end to all of your fun. By finding a local provider of urgent care services, in fact, may be able to solve your problem so that you can go on with your scheduled plans.
Economical. In almost all cases, urgent care locations provide a service that is far less expensive than an emergency room visit. In fact, many urgent care and quick care settings even post the cost of many of their most basic services. From strep throat to flu shots, urgent care clinic costs are often the most affordable. The fact that most of these locations also take insurance cards is an added economical bonus.
Reliable. Even though these services may cost less, urgent care settings still provide very reliable patient care and treatment. In fact, 80% of urgent care centers even provide fracture care. Additionally, 40% of urgent care centers also provide electronic prescription ordering systems, and a substantially larger proportion of these clinics also use computerized systems for viewing imaging and lab results, as well as for collecting demographics of patients, billing, coding for conditions and procedures, and clinical notes. The fact that a single physician or a group of physicians owns approximately 50% of urgent care centers may be the reason that these clinics are so well equipped. Physicians who are used to the technology available in their private practices and at hospitals understand the benefits of these electronic service.
Convenient. Perhaps even more important than both the economical and reliable care that these quick clinics provide, these settings are often the most convenient. For instance, did you know that the majority of these health care centers remain open until 7:00 pm or later on weeknights? The fact that 90.6% provide these convenient hours means that they are ready to serve their patients on evenings, as well as weekend. Many clinics are even open until 9:00 pm or provide 24 hour care options. Knowing that you can walk in for an appointment, however, is likely the greatest convenience provided.
