Why A Walk-In Clinic Is Better Than Emergency Room

Retailing choices – Patients have several choices to receive services, through the hospital, a clinic visit, and now the minute clinic. Mayo has two Minute clinics’ that are a walk-in center and are used to assess and treat minor conditions, and monitor chronic conditions of patients and no appointment is required. The wait time is usually less than 15 minutes. (Keckley, Ph.D., P. H., 2008).

(Mann, 2014, p.2) These strategies include: broadening access to primary care services; focus on individuals who frequently utilize the emergency department (super-utilizers); and targeting the needs of individuals with behavioral health problems. (Mann, 2014, pp 2-4) Many resources and processes have been implemented in order to help decrease inappropriate emergency department visits. This paper is going to demonstrate some resources and processes that are in place to help individuals obtain health care at the appropriate health care setting.

The pediatric clinic provided well check-ups, sports physicals, vaccinations, sick visits, referrals. These services are by appointment, if a walk in comes in they will schedule them for an appointment or recommend going to the urgent care. When a patient called with a child running a 103 degree fever the nurse recommended to go to St. Fancies children’s hospital Emergency room.

Urgent care clinics are for individuals seeking non-life threatening treatment. These clinics provide another level of care to the community and the intentions of urgent care are not to replace emergency

I myself have been in that situation before. I did get sick and needed to see a doctor. My options were a visit to the local emergency room or urgent care. I chose urgent care. I chose urgent care for two reasons. Yes, I was sick, but it was not an emergency. Also, urgent care was much cheaper. After all, this expense was coming completely out of my pocket. The urgent care visit was very affordable, less than $100. The doctor was aware I did not have health insurance and prescribed medications I could receive in a generic form and on the Wal-Mart $4 prescription list. I believe our emergency rooms are overwhelmed with individuals that really should be seen in the office setting but without insurance, the emergency room becomes their sense of primary care. I realize they feel they do not have a choice and feel it’s their only option to receive

(2013). Deciding to Visit the Emergency Department for Non-Urgent Conditions: A Systematic Review of the Literature. The American Journal of Managed Care, 19(1),

Today, here in Ardmore we currently have two urgent care type facilities. One is owned by an investment group and the other by a group of local physicians, both have a steady stream of clients, however both tend to have a high turnover rate of employees. Both centers offer have limited on-site medical lab testing, x-rays. The closest after hours care, weekend care facilities, not including Emergency rooms to Ardmore is 45 minutes in every direction. The centers located in more metro areas offer the same or similar lab testing as well as complex labs and complex imaging with cat scans and MRI test.

In a Cochrane Review article, the authors assess the quality of care provided by walk-in clinics compared to the care of physician offices and emergency rooms (Chen, Hu, Chen, & Mehrotra, 2015). As you mentioned above, they found that walk- in clinics are very useful since they do not require any advance appointments and offer a more convenient experience in terms of location and community settings (Chen, Hu, Chen, & Mehrotra, 2015). However, walk-in clinics only provide acute treatment for minor conditions such as infections that do not require IV antibiotics or advanced laboratory and imaging for diagnosis or procedures for treatment, hypertension, common coughs and colds (Chen, Hu, Chen, & Mehrotra, 2015).

I have never been treated at an in-store clinic, nor do I know of anyone that has. Myself and the people that I associate with don't have confidence in non-traditional healthcare settings. My perception of these minute clinics are that their personnel are less experienced and aren't equipped to accurately diagnosis and treat medical conditions. However, the staff that renders medical treatments at these clinics are Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. Nevertheless, my preference of where I decide to receive medical care is unchanged. In addition, I can understand the allure of these health centers to the general public. After all, these clinics are more cost effective and work best with persons riddled with a busy schedule. For example,

You can often stay at home even when you need skilled care as long as there is a nurse to train your family and supervise your care. This means you may not have to go to the hospital just to have

A second determinant to ER usage suggested that normal access to care was unavailable. Almost 49.6% of members reported that couldn’t get in to see their regular doctor, and 28.6% reported they could not get an appointment with their doctor soon enough. On average, 18.1% reported closed urgent cares, and 18.9% reported closed clinics or health centers. Almost a quarter of the respondents, 24.4%, indicated they used the ER during their last visit because they felt they had no other place to go.

In the medical field, the two common terms are inpatient and outpatient services. Some medical facilities offer both types of care depending on the treatment needs of the patient. Outpatient procedures are provided to patients that are referred to the facility, however inpatient procedures are for patients that are admitted to the facility. Inpatients are admitted to facilities that provide a longer term of care. In contrast, outpatients requests referrals to clinics and outpatient offices that will address their immediate prompt care. This paper will examine the benefits of

This means a patient has to always go to see his/her primary doctor first then gets a referrral to go to further medical treatment or additional services. Sometimes the primary doctor is so busy that a patient is not able to get an urgent appointment and then he has to go to either an urgent care or an emergency room, however, but either one only wants to provide a quick relief to the patient and then send patient back to the primary doctor for a follow up. Therfore, the medical appointment system is always a known constraint in a healtchcare system.

Hospital and Urgent care center: In an emergency, it would usually not be necessary to call the hospital or the local urgent care center, but having the address and phone numbers of these facilities could prove to be very useful. Those living in larger cities with multiple hospitals and care centers would be wise to note which hospital would best serve their needs in an emergency and which urgent care location could provide appropriate care in case of a non-life threatening occurrence.

There are certain medical issues that can wait for your general physician, but others require immediate medical attention. Knowing which medical symptoms warrant a trip to the emergency room could save your life. To help residents in the Mid-Williamette Valley area of Oregon stay informed, the caring staff at Santiam Hospital has compiled a list of warning signs.