What is an urgent care center?
It is a medical facility that provides ambulatory care and walk-in medical services for patients with non-threatening acute illnesses or injuries. Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and several other healthcare professionals frequently employ urgent care centers. They offer several services, including primary care, X-rays, lab tests, and immunizations. Many urgent care centers also offer on-site pharmacy services.
Patients often visit the Emergency Department to treat low-severity conditions (such as fractures, infections, or UTIs) even though ambulatory care can be provided outside hospital-based settings. This trend is mainly due to the long waiting times at family practices, limited after-hours care at medical clinics, and limited awareness of 'Convenient Care' (such as Urgent Care centers or retail health clinics).
Many Emergency Room (ER) visits are by patients who do not require emergent care (i.e., not suffering from life- or limb-threatening conditions). In addition to increasing the inpatient caseload, these patients may, in turn, have to bear the inconvenience of long waiting times. Some patients even choose to leave without receiving care. Moreover, ER visits often lead to significantly higher out-of-pocket expenses, especially when such low-acuity conditions are treatable outside emergency departments.
It may explain why urgent care clinics (UCCs) are rapidly becoming integral to the U.S. healthcare sector. As of 2021, there were 5,360 UCCs in the United States, up 6.6 percent from the 2020 level. The rising numbers are why Urgent Care Clinics comprise a market worth over $20 billion.
Facilities providing urgent care near you offer:
- Walk-in care
- A variety of diagnostic services
- Extended working hours on weekdays and weekends
- Shorter wait times
- Lesser medical expenditure in comparison with emergency departments/rooms
Unlike a regular physician's office, urgent care clinics provide a range of non-emergency treatments. For instance, urgent care sites often include procedure rooms for lacerations or fractures. They also offer many diagnostic services, such as X-rays and laboratory tests.
Patients generally visit urgent care facilities to receive treatment for low-acuity conditions that are not life-threatening. In 2015, the top five reported diagnoses at Urgent Care Centers were acute upper respiratory infections, acute pharyngitis, acute sinusitis, cough, and acute bronchitis.
Seeking urgent care near you is your best bet when you need medical attention for low-acuity conditions like cuts and bruises, animal bites, sprains and strains, fractures, rashes, and other illnesses. Urgent care centers offer considerably shorter wait times, and a visit to a center often costs significantly less than a typical emergency room (ER). An ER visit for an upper respiratory illness will set you back around $486, whereas a similar treatment in an Urgent Care center will cost you $111 on average. Similarly, an ER will bill you $400 for an earache, whereas an urgent care center will charge you around $110.
According to Debt.org, over 9,300 urgent care locations are across the United States. Booking an appointment can help cut wait times, although some urgent care centers also offer walk-in appointments. Urgent care centers deliver speedy and effective care to patients. They also fill a gap by providing greater convenience and quicker care than emergency rooms and, sometimes, even typical doctor's offices.
What conditions can urgent care centers help with?
Urgent care facilities offer diagnostic services such as blood testing and x-rays, helping manage a wide range of ailments and injuries, including:
- Minor fractures due to accidents and falls
- Minor cuts that require stitches
- Vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration
- Eye infections
- Rashes
- Bites
- Allergic responses
- Common vaccines
- Mild breathing issues (such as asthma)
- Fevers
- Sprains and strains
- Pulled muscles
- Infections
- Abdominal pain
- Moderate back problems
Urgent care vs. emergency room
There are a few critical differences between urgent care and emergency room visits:
- Urgent care is for non-life-threatening conditions requiring treatment relatively quickly, whereas emergency rooms are for life-threatening conditions requiring immediate attention.
- Emergency rooms can be more expensive than urgent care centers.
- Waiting times can be much longer in the ER than in an urgent care center.
If you or a family are suffering from a medical issue, it is essential to understand when to visit an urgent care center and when to visit the emergency room. Call 911 or immediately rush to the nearest ER if the condition is severe or life-threatening. However, if the condition is not an emergency, consider visiting an urgent care center instead. You will likely save time and money, and you won't have to wait as long to be seen by a doctor or nurse.
How are primary care and urgent care different?
Urgent and primary care centers play essential roles in your healthcare, but each serves a distinct function.
A primary care physician (PCP) is a general practitioner who often serves as your primary point of contact for all your healthcare needs. Unless you relocate or change insurance policies, you will most likely see the same primary care physician for most of your adult life. Over time, your primary care physician understands your medical history and will monitor your health, diagnose and treat illnesses, and manage referrals to specialists if you require assistance outside their expertise.
You can think of an urgent care center as a walk-in clinic. However, is urgent care primary care? It is not since it serves as a bridge between emergency department care and routine family doctor visits. Urgent care clinics handle a range of injuries and illnesses that require more immediate attention than a visit to your PCP but are not urgent enough to require a trip to an emergency room.
You will find competent medical staff in both primary and urgent care centers. However, a physician's assistant or nurse practitioner usually provides the treatment at an urgent care center. Regardless of which medical specialists you see, they aim to provide quick and timely treatment of acute medical conditions rather than comprehensive preventative or primary care.
What questions should you ask an urgent care clinic?
You may seek urgent care near you when your primary care doctor is unavailable or when you need a convenient alternative to busy emergency rooms. However, before you walk into an urgent care clinic, you must ensure that it fits your unique requirements well. The best way of doing that is by calling the clinic and asking them a few essential questions, as discussed below. Alternatively, you can check the clinic's website to get detailed information.
- Do you accept my insurance? What is my co-pay? Should I be aware of any other payment policies?
- What are your operating hours?
- Can I book an appointment and reserve my slot?
- How much waiting time can I expect during my visit?
- Do you offer care for my particular condition?
- Do you provide lab tests, X-rays, and other diagnostic services?
- What type of provider will attend me—a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant?
- What can I expect during the visit, and how should I prepare for it?
- What documents and information should I carry with me?
- Will I need to visit the urgent care facility for a follow-up, or can I see my primary care provider?
- Will you provide me with a copy of the medical records for my provider's future reference?
How should you prepare for a visit to the urgent care center?
If you’ve never visited an urgent care center, you may have many queries in mind. As mentioned earlier, you can call the facility and discuss how to prepare for the visit. However, if that's not available to you, consider following the comprehensive guide below:
- Make a detailed, comprehensive list of all the symptoms you're experiencing: When you visit an Urgent Care Center with the flu, the symptoms will be apparent. In most cases, you would have a runny/stuffy nose, chills, and cough. However, the presence of other symptoms may mean a different underlying illness. Whenever you see the urgent care physician, speak of all your symptoms. If you have many things, prioritize the most crucial ones first. However, as a thumb rule, you should not wait until the end of your visit to bring up these. Let the physician know what's bothering you right away.
- Bring medical reports and all relevant documents to the consultation: X-rays, CT and MRI scans, blood, culture, and urine reports, as well as other medical reports, may help during a visit to the urgent care clinic. It would be best to inform the doctor about your medical history, including any past or current diagnoses or surgeries you have undergone. Your doctor may also ask about the medical practitioners you have consulted recently, including primary care physicians, family physicians, chiropractors, and other medical professionals.
- Medicines and prescriptions: When prescribing a new medication, the doctor must be aware of any other medicines you already take. It is best to carry the names of any prescription medications you're taking (along with their dose) to the consultation. All this information may also be necessary for making an accurate diagnosis and deciding the best course of treatment for you. Some experts advise that you make a note of all of your prescription prescriptions, over-the-counter meds, vitamin supplements, and even herbal remedies. Others go as far as recommending that you bring them in a bag to the consultation—sometimes, having them all in one place can be the best way for a doctor to gauge your medication history.
Why is it beneficial to visit an urgent care center?
Urgent care centers offer several benefits for patients. They provide convenient, walk-in access to medical care for minor injuries and illnesses. So that patients can receive treatment even when their primary care physician is not available, urgent care facilities also provide weekend hours. Additionally, urgent care centers are typically less costly than emergency rooms, making them a good option for patients without health coverage or with high deductibles.
How can you find urgent care near you in Los Angeles, California?
Patients rarely have the luxury of looking around for the best urgent care during their time of need. After all, timely care and medical attention are the best ways to avoid complications. At Zocdoc, we realize the gravity of such situations. Therefore, our search algorithms will help you find the best urgent care providers near you, all in the blink of an eye.
There is no need to run around asking for recommendations, especially while you are suffering from a mind-numbing migraine; instead, look at the verified customer reviews and ratings on our site and book an appointment immediately!
You can book in-network providers by adding your insurance details in the search bar. If you have difficulty locating your health plan, use our insurance detector. In the account settings, upload a clear image of your insurance card, wait for Zocdoc to scan it, and receive your desired results. You can then continue looking for providers who accept your insurance. Do you have any more related queries? Please go through our patient help center page for detailed answers!
You can also read through detailed profiles of a provider before booking an appointment. These profiles include crucial information on their background, including their academic qualifications, board certifications, licensure, and clinical interests.
When you search on Zocdoc, we display the top-rated providers in your neighborhood. However, you can also add a specific region (the city near your workplace) for more targeted results. There are no additional fees for scheduling an appointment or locating centers providing urgent care near you.
Bookings are always quick, secure, and completely free on Zocdoc!
Urgent care statistics in Los Angeles County
The total number of urgent care centers in the United States has increased significantly over the years, from roughly 6,400 in 2014 to almost 8,100 in 2018, as reported by Consumer Reports. Even in a single year, from 2017 to 2018, the country witnessed an 8% increase in urgent care centers, from 8,125 in 2017 to 8,774 in 2017 (Urgent Care Association).
The Los Angeles healthcare market juggles the needs of over 10 million people across a geographically diverse landscape. According to the California Health Care Almanac, more than 80 urgent care hospitals are scattered throughout Los Angeles County. In 2018, 84 licensed urgent care facilities were operating in the county, including four county hospitals, one district hospital, 29 investor-owned hospitals, and 50 nonprofit hospitals.
According to the same report, urgent care facilities housed 178 beds per 100,000 people in California, compared to 205 beds per 100,000 in Los Angeles County in 2018. Six health systems housed most of these: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Cedars-Sinai Health System, Providence St. Joseph Health, County of Los Angeles, Dignity Health (CommonSpirit), and PIH Health.
Sources
PubMed Central[1]
PubMed Central[2]
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Cleveland Clinic
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
Mayo Clinic
ScienceDirect
MedlinePlus
Debt.org
Consumer Reports
California Health Care Foundation
Eden Health
Healthgrades
In and Out Urgent Care and Occupational Medicine
