Did you know that according to the CDC, Americans made a whopping 136.1 million visits to at least one of the country’s nearly 3,900 ERs in 2012? In fact, nearly half (approximately 43%) of all admissions to a hospital originate in the emergency room.
While emergency room care is vital for life-threatening diseases, illnesses, and injuries, many times people take a trip to the ER when they could’ve gone to a Seattle urgent care facility. This is a problem for a couple reasons. Firstly, it creates unnecessary pressure on the emergency doctors. They have their hands full enough with patients that could potentially die. This means they have less time to look after these critical patients, while others have longer waiting periods, and also receive less time with the doctor. Secondly, emergency room care is incredibly expensive. For simple treatments such as a UTI, allergy problems, or sinusitis, it can cost respectively, $665, $345, and $617.
However, Seattle urgent care centers exist to treat patients that need urgent medical attention, but cannot get a timely appointment with their primary care physician. For example, a patient might visit a Seattle urgent care clinic for: slips, falls, sprains, strains, fractures, lacerations requiring a few stitches, fever, flu, UTIs, and more.
These Seattle urgent care centers solve each of the problems created by the over-demand of emergency rooms. By going there instead of an ER, emergency doctors have one less patient to worry about, giving them more time to treat critical patients. Seattle urgent care clinics also provide faster, more efficient services, with visits lasting around an hour. Also, they’re more affordable than ERs. For the same problems mentioned above (UTIs, allergies, and sinusitis), Seattle urgent care centers would charge approximately $110, $97, and $112, respectively.
The next time you feel compelled to go to an emergency room, you could benefit by going to an urgent care center instead. Of course, urgent care facilities are not replacements for ERs, and if the illness or injury could be fatal, then you should absolutely go to an emergency room. For all else, however, you can save a lot of time, money and stress by visiting an urgent care clinic. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. More information like this.