Urgent Care Centers the Need for Urgent Essay

Urgent Care Centers

The Need for Urgent Care Centers

As humans we are exposed to various illnesses throughout our lives, some more severe than others. Due to this, we are constantly in need of doctors, nurses, hospital and other health related centers. Urgent care, which is defined as "the delivery of ambulatory medical care" by the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA), and the centers with which it is associated are vital to our society as well. This paper will therefore provide detail upon the topic of this essay, including an argument for the need of an urgent care center within one's community. It will also include, as part of this detailing of the topic, cost advantage issues and other issues involving the quality of care as superior to those services offered in hospitals or other health care facilities.

The primary issue to be tackled in this paper is why urgent care centers are so necessary. In order to do this, one must analyze the scope of urgent care, which should be to treat as many problems as possible, as would be done in a primary physician's office, but also to offer services which would not necessarily be available in a primary care physician's office. Such an example includes x-ray facilities, according to UCAOA. Another example can include the fact that, in these kinds of facilities there are also services that allow for minor laceration and trauma treatment, whereas a physician's office is not equipped for such incidents and would most likely not provide this care and/or send the individual to the hospital emergency room.

The UCAOA further describes the value of urgent care, which is that these centers actually provide savings to patients and insurers when compared to similar service in hospital settings and emergency departments.Furthermore and needless to say, is that urgent care facilities also treat those individuals who cannot wait for a physician or cannot go to a hospital. In addition, it sheds light on the convenience of urgent care, which it describes with some data from the Center for Disease Control, which states,

"…a patient visit to hospital emergency departments currently averages 3.2 hours, and a more recent Press-Ganey study estimated visit time at 4 hours. Many of the problems currently treated in hospital emergency departments can receive timely treatment in less than one hour in an urgent care center."

Indeed, it seems that the CDC has reported as well that over 40% of hospital emergency room visits are really non-urgent or semi-urgent problems which would also aggravate the situation in an emergency room, making it more stressful for the staff and more crowded and overwhelming for the patients.

Other sources estimate the number to be lower, but on average this number does go above 20% or more.

Another benefit of the urgent care center is that in….....