When accidents happen and injuries are incurred, most people do not have time to schedule an appointment with their primary care physician. According to Med-Rite Urgent Care owner, Samuel Fisch, most patients say they have an easier time receiving medical care when they visit a walk in clinic in New York City than when they schedule an appointment a week or more in advance with their primary doctors.
Although hospital emergency rooms are available in most instances, Fisch says they are best reserved for people having serious, life-threatening medical emergencies. If someone gets injured in a car accident or has a heart attack, then a hospital emergency room is obviously the first place they should go. However, if a person catches a particularly bad cold, or if he slams his finger in the door and needs x-rays, then a walk in clinic in New York City is almost always going to deliver better service in a shorter amount of time.
According to a recent survey that Fisch refers to, 60% of the emergency room visits in the United States each year end up being non-life threatening. People who fall into this 60% of patients would be better served by visiting an urgent care center or a walk in clinic in New York City. Doing so would allow them to avoid waiting in long lines or paying exorbitant bills.
Urgent care centers like Med-Rite Urgent Care employ physicians and nurses just like hospital emergency rooms, however, they are usually more cost effective – both for patients with and without health insurance.
Fisch says that patients in New York City are visiting the walk in clinic or urgent care center for just about everything. As long as the condition is not life threatening, such as a stroke or an aneurism, an urgent care center or walk in clinic has the medical personnel on staff to help resolve whatever issue a patient might have.
If a person is having a medical emergency that seems life threatening, then he or she should call 911 and go straight to an emergency room. However, if a person is having any other type of ailment or medical problem – no matter how minor or how serious – then it is usually best to see a doctor immediately at an urgent care center or a walk in clinic instead.