Are you looking for a place where you can get family health care right away if there is a sudden medical issue that arrives? If the situation is not life-threatening you may want to consider going to an urgent care facility rather than visiting the emergency room.

In fact, in 2010 the Rand Corporation reported that almost 20% ER trips could have been handled at immediate care. This may have resulted in as much as $4.4 billion in health care savings for a year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly half of the adults who went to the emergency room but were not so ill that they could stay at the hospital said they went to ER because their primary doctor was not available. Unfortunately, less than 30% of physicians see patients after regular business hours.

This is where it can be beneficial to find a doctor at a 24 hr urgent care facility. These kinds of health care centers are designed to deal with the assessment and care of unexpected medical conditions. That being said, more of these facilities are also offering, regular physicals, x-rays, and even lab testing. Fifty-seven percent of urgent care patients in a survey told the Urgent Care Association of America that they didn’t have to wait any longer than 15 minutes to be treated. Approximately 80% of all the urgent care trips from the survey were done in an hour.

If you have additional questions, comments, or tips regarding family health care and urgent care centers, be sure to share them in the forum below. Learn more.