Blood. People faint at the sight of it. But fortunately there are a brave few who continue to provide care even when faced with gruesome injuries. These people are not necessarily in hospitals, or even the primary care doctor. These people are in a growing field that delivers medical care in a safe, effective manner. It is urgent care.

Urgent care started in the 1980’s when few people had a choice between the primary care physician’s office and the emergency room. People facing urgent issues either had to wait it out until their appointment with the primary care physician or go to a hospital, where the cost would be significant.

Urgent care centers began bridging that gap in the 1980’s and have since grown into a force within the medical field. More and more physicians are being trained in urgent care medicine and urgent care centers are opening all across the country. There are even some that are opening around the world.

There are some statistics about urgent care medicine that are worth noting. They are:

• Roughly 60% of all urgent care centers have a wait time of less than 15 minutes to see a physician, and 65% have a physician on-site at all times.
• 57% of patients wait 15 minutes or less to be seen, and about 80% of all visits are 60 minutes or less.
• More than 66% of urgent care centers open prior to 9:00 am during the week, with significant proportions doing so on Saturday and Sunday.
• The majority of centers remain open until 7:00 pm or later on weeknights, with two out of five remaining open until 9:00 pm.
• Approximately one in five urgent care centers have more than 450 patient visits per week.
• Seven in ten urgent care centers can provide intravenous fluids when needed.
• Four out of five urgent care centers provide fracture care.

There are many perks to going to an urgent care center, most notably that a person can be seen quickly, without an appointment, at a relatively low cost, and by providers who are experienced in their fields. Urgent care centers treat a wide variety of illnesses and ailments.

They include influenza, bronchitis, lacerations, broken bones, fractures, strep throat, dizziness, loss of consciousness, vision issues, blood sugar issues, vertigo, and other ills. They also take care of people who have been in falls or hurt by objects that have caused bruising.

They represent a more effective mode of treatment than the primary care physician for urgent issues. This is because a primary care physician generally requires an appointment for the patient to be seen. An urgent care center takes patients on a walk in basis, meaning they don’t have to have an appointment.

Urgent care centers are also a more effective mode of treatment than emergency rooms for issues that are urgent but not critical. Urgent care centers are much less expensive than emergency rooms and while the costs can still run up into the several hundreds for those that don’t have insurance, treatment at an ER in the same case would be in the thousands.

Urgent care centers have grown in popularity to the point that numerous members of the medical field are now being trained in urgent care medicine. It is a growing field. And while urgent care centers mostly have at least a physician on hand, many are now having a mid-level provider stay in house to help.

Urgent care centers also have sophisticated imaging equipment compared to the primary care physician’s office. Urgent care centers have x-ray equipment to help with the detecting of broken bones and fractures. They have different kinds of equipment that can help diagnose a patient.

There are some terms to know. They are walk in urgent care, walk in clinics, urgent care services, urgent care locations, what is urgent care, urgent care for kids, urgent care facility, urgent care Littleton, urgent care Lakewood CO, urgent care Highlands Ranch, and more.

There are many advantages of urgent care. The cost is one and the accessibility is another. There are other advantages of urgent care. It can be found in many locations around the country. Another one of the advantages of urgent care is that urgent care treats many conditions. Those are some of the advantages of urgent care.