In the health care industry, few institutions are as valuable or convenient as urgent care centers, which are sometimes known as immediate care centers. Because of the hours for urgent care, the quality of service, the low cost and the convenience it offers its patrons, urgent care clinics are booming in popularity across the country.

Urgent care centers are gaining in popularity mostly because they operate on a walk in basis. This is so helpful because many families are on the go regularly and do not have time to base their schedules around the hours of a primary care doctor. Plus, there are few pediatric walk in clinics, and urgent care facilities can treat children just as effectively as adults in some cases, so they can double as pediatric walk in clinics as well.

The average child catches between six and ten colds a year, so going and seeing a doctor six or ten times a year can be costly. On that note, urgent care facilities are known as the cheapest and most cost efficient medical care option available. While the typical hospital ER visit can cost upwards of $1,000, an urgent care facility visit is typically less than a tenth of the cost of that.

About two thirds of urgent care facilities employ a mixture of medical professionals, including nurses, doctors, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners, and about 65 percent of all urgent care facilities have at least one licensed physician on site at all times.

Amazingly, there are about 110 million visits to emergency rooms by Americans every year. With that said, a CDC survey showed that just under half of all ER patients said they only went to the ER because their primary care doctor’s office wasn’t open.

Ultimately, urgent care facilities benefit everyone. The fact that they can take care of people of all ages on a walk in basis and do so cheaply and efficiently means that they are an incredibly popular option for people who need medical care. At the end of the day, because they are so convenient, millions of people visit urgent care centers regularly. Read this website for more information.