After hours urgent care has become a popular way to seek medical assistance. The emergency walk-in clinic is springing up in every town and city. People are happy about being seen sooner, as opposed to going to the ER and waiting for nearly an hour before being seen. Between 2003 and 2009 typical wait time at hospital emergency rooms increased from about 46 minutes to about 58 minutes.

After hours urgent care is available to people who are sick or injured, with a condition that does not warrant a visit to a hospital emergency room. An emergency room visit would typically be needed when symptoms are life threatening. A medical walk in clinic is the appropriate choice when the patient is dealing with situations like minor burns, colds and coughs, animal bites, ear and sinus infections, insect stings, and so forth. Life threatening allergic reactions to bug bites and stings would need to be seen at the ER as well, because of the possible complications those can cause. Certain required sports physicals can be done by an after hours urgent care facility medical professional, as can some prescribed work physicals.

Other benefits of after hours urgent care facilities are, of course, the hours they are open to the public, in addition to the promptness with which patients are seen, the low cost as compared to a hospital emergency room, and the availability of a family health clinic, or urgent care facility locally for almost everyone.

Many towns and cities offer different types of after hours urgent care facilities.

There is the neighborhood health clinic which is available to the community and might offer both medical and dental services at low, affordable costs. They are typically a facility through which WIC can be procured, which is a program for pregnant women and new mothers to help provide the nutrition they need during and after their pregnancy, as well as providing for the nutritional needs of the newborn.

Many towns have a family health clinic, a health clinic for children, and a health clinic for women. Each of these provide care that is specific to the particular gender or age group named.

Studies show that in order to see to health care needs in the United States by the year 2025, there would need to be another 52,000 PCP’s in practice. For a patient to visit a hospital emergency room nowadays, the average cost is about $615.00.