Urgent Care: The Best Thing You’ve Never Heard Of
Posted by Amelia Laing on January 13, 2012 in Health and Wellness
When you sprain an ankle or find a suspicious rash on your arm, where do you go, an emergency department or an urgent care?
More and more people are opting for urgent cares, where treatment for non-life threatening illness is often cheaper, faster and more convenient than the medical care provided by an emergency department. At an urgent care, you can get evaluated and treated for sprains, fractures, lacerations, rashes, and sore throats, among other minor medical conditions. They may also provide X-ray services, flu and strep testing, as well as school, sports and camp physicals. You don’t need an appointment to get treatment, and they’re open on evenings, weekends, and holidays.
The approximately 9,000 urgent cares across the country are doing for healthcare what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar: revolutionizing it. As healthcare costs skyrocket and visits to emergency departments increase, urgent cares are getting a lot more visits—about 3 million per week, according to the Urgent Care Association Of America (UCAOA) and a lot more press. A survey coordinated by UCAOA found that “13% of urgent care centers surveyed in 2010 indicated that they would be expanding their number of locations in the next 12 months, 5% planned to expand to a larger facility, and 68% expected growth in their current location.”
Yet many people are not aware that urgent cares even exist, which may partially account for emergency room overcrowding. Those who go to emergency departments with non-life threatening illnesses “probably don’t know about urgent cares at all,” says William Gluckman, DO, president and CEO of FastER Urgent Care in Morris Plains, NJ. “A savvy consumer would surely agree that lower co-pays, shorter wait times, and the more quiet environment of an urgent care make it a better option than an emergency department for treatment and non-urgent problems.”
Not only are urgent cares more convenient for those whose illnesses aren’t life threatening; they’re also cheaper than emergency departments. For someone who is uninsured, an urgent care visit can cost 80% less than a visit to an emergency department, says Dr. Gluckman.
And then there’s the problem of physician shortages. There are over 66 million people living in what the UCAOA calls “primary care Health Professional Shortage areas.” Even those who do have a regular physician often find themselves waiting for care: according to a study from The Commonwealth Fund, 63% of those with regular physicians reported difficulty getting access to care on nights, weekends or holidays without going to the emergency room, while 20% of adults waited six or days or more to see a doctor when they were sick in 2010. The problem of physician shortages is only expected to worsen as time goes on, according to the UCAOA. Urgent cares can help stem the problem by providing an alternative to the emergency room.
iTriage, a mobile and web application developed by two ER physicians, Drs. Peter Hudson and Wayne Guerra, helps its users discern whether an urgent care or an emergency department would better serve their medical needs. Its unique Symptom-to-Provider pathway helps patients answer two questions: “What could be wrong?” and “Where should I go for treatment?” “iTriage helps people better understand their symptoms and the medical conditions that may be causing them,” says Guerra. “The application then directs them to the appropriate facility or provider, whether that is an urgent care clinic, retail clinic, emergency department or physician.”
Dr. Gluckman, while enthusiastic about urgent cares’ burgeoning position in the world of healthcare, stresses that people should not come to an urgent care center for such as suspected stroke or heart attack, severe shortness of breath, major traumatic injuries such as fractures with bone exposed, or alteration in consciousness.
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William Gluckman, DO, MBA, FACEP is the president and CEO of FastER Urgent Care in Morris Plains, NJ. Dr. Gluckman is a board certified emergency physician and a member of the Urgent Care Association of America’s Board of Directors. He also serves as President of the Urgent Care College of Physicians.
