Many events in life are unpredictable, especially when it comes to medical situations. In the event of an accident, injury or even a sudden sickness or contraction of a disease, you need to get a medical professional to check you and diagnose your condition.
Normally, the best place to go to when you need medical assistance is your primary care physician. If a person is in critical state, on the other hand, he or she must be taken to an emergency room immediately. So, what then, is urgent care?
Urgent Care Services
Back in the day, if you needed stitches or a doctor to set your broken bones, a trip to the emergency room would have taken care of things. But times have changed as emergency rooms have been devoted to deal with the most severe cases, primarily life-and-death situations. Instead of going to the ER, where major illnesses and trauma can delay your time with the doctor, you can simply go to a reliable Pearland urgent care service provider.
Urgent care clinics fill the gap between routine exams and emergency situations. They are designed to treat conditions that cannot wait until you can get an appointment with your primary physician in a day or two, but are not serious enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room.
Urgent care situations include:
- High fever
- Severe sore throat and cough
- Moderate or mild asthma
- Cuts and gashes that need to be disinfected and stitched
- Breathing difficulties
- Back pain and related problems
- Minor accidents and falls
- Broken bones and sprains
- Severe pain in the abdominal area
- Dehydration, diarrhea or vomiting
- Urinary tract infection
- Eye irritation
- Rashes and infections
When Do You Need an Emergency Room?
The need for a visit to the ER will depend on the severity of the situation. If it is life threatening, involves severe wounds or amputation, you will need to be admitted to the nearest emergency room immediately. Should you experience the following (or see someone experiencing the following), call 911 immediately for assistance:
- Heavy uncontrollable bleeding
- Severe chest pain combined with breathing difficulty
- Compound fractures
- Poisoning
- Moderate burns
- Pregnancy-related issues
- Seizures and convulsions or sudden unconsciousness
- Wounds caused by gunshots or a knife
- Symptoms of a stroke –slurred speech, loss of vision, weakness, sudden numbness or confusion
- Symptoms of a heart attack – severe chest pain that lasts longer than 2 minutes
- Extreme neck or head injuries
- Unbearable abdominal pain
- Newborns under 3 months experiencing fever
Why Choose a Pearland Urgent Care Clinic?
1. Shorter waiting time
For urgent care you usually don’t have to make an appointment. As a result, there’s no need to wait for a long period of time. You can find relief from pain, colds, cuts, fractures and sprains much quicker with urgent care services.
2. Prevent the situation from worsening
Pearland urgent care clinics have doctors who can treat medical situations quickly, thereby preventing them from festering and turning into something uncontrollable.
3. Save Money
An unnecessary trip to the ER can cost a fortune. Checking in with an urgent care provider can help you get the expert medical care you need at a much lower cost.
Best Time to go to a Pearland Urgent Care Clinic
Urgent care clinics are usually crowded and busiest in the mornings, and then again in the evenings. This is the time when most people can make it to see the doctor, because it’s just before or after work and school hours. If your injury or illness can wait, go in during the mid-day period to avoid the rush. This way you can get yourself checked out quickly, without the wait.
Are Urgent Care Clinics Affiliated with Hospitals?
Most urgent care clinics are not affiliated with hospitals. Although most are operated independently, they are typically well-equipped, much like emergency rooms in hospitals. They have X-ray equipment, a sufficient stock of IV fluids and the equipment needed to conduct physical exams. The doctors here are also well-educated and trained in various fields of medical care.
What Most People Don’t Know about Urgent Care Clinics
1. No need to call ahead
Sometimes it’s difficult to make an appointment and explain to a receptionist what your condition is. And sometimes you need a doctor to look at your case urgently. With Pearland urgent care clinics, you don’t need to call in advance to schedule an appointment.
2. Getting turned away is not common
Urgent care clinics take care of all kinds of conditions. Your illness is never too trivial to be treated by an urgent care provider. However, if your sickness is too severe, you will be sent to the nearest ER for immediate treatment.
3. You still need a family practitioner
Going to a Pearland urgent care center doesn’t mean that you don’t need to have a family physician. Urgent care primarily deals with emergent medical situations, such as accidents or unexpected illness. For ongoing care and chronic conditions, however, your regular doctor is still your number one resource. Things like regular blood pressure checks, diabetes care, weight control, healthy eating habits and mammograms are still best performed by the family doctor who knows your full medical history.
Urgent care clinics are designed to treat the kind of illnesses that come on suddenly and can’t wait, but are unlikely to turn life-threatening. Prime Urgent Care in Pearland is equipped to help during those unexpected moments in life when waiting for a family doctor’s appointment is unfeasible, but the emergency room is just a step above what you need.
References:
http://www.prevention.com/health/when-use-urgent-care
http://www.pamf.org/urgent-care/when-to-use/
http://www.mountsinai.org/patient-care/service-areas/urgent-care/what-is-urgent-care
