Urgent Care Kansas City - What Makes Up a Quality Urgent Care
There are many factors that go into making a quality Urgent Care Center. The common ingredients that make up a quality urgent care facility are:
- Access
- Quality of the Doctors that staff the Urgent Care Center
- Services Offered by the Urgent Care Center
- Latest in Equipment and Technology
- Accepts a variety of insurance coverages
Frequently patients have no idea they can be seen at an urgent care facility for their non-life threatening injuries. By avoiding the emergencies rooms for these conditions, patients and our health care system can reduce skyrocketing costs. Urgent centers fill the void between routine doctor visits and life-threatening emergencies.
Emergency rooms must be equipped and staffed to handle the most dire of emergencies. That equipment and staff is very expensive. Because of that overhead, the operation of an emergency room is very expensive. Thus when a patient reports to the emergency room with a cough or a sprained ankle, they will be treated accordingly but at a very high rate. This situation drives up costs for the patient and to our health care system.
Patients forever complain about how long it takes to be seen in an emergency room. Because emergency rooms have to treat the very ill first, as any delay could mean life or death, patients with non-life threatening injuries may wait many hours to be seen. The sorting of the less ill from the severely ill is called TRIAGE and it is that screening process which may make patients wait for hours.
For the patients who are out of town, new to a town, or perhaps it is the weekend or after 5 pm or they really don't have a doctor and they have an urgent problem but it isn't life threatening......What are they supposed to do ? If they don't know about urgent care centers, they will seek care at an emergency room.
This is where the Urgent Care Centers shine. They offer services you cant typically get at your doctor's office but could receive at an emergency room. There are not the place to go if you're having a heart attack, but are the place to go for the sore throat, the laceration, a broken finger, a headache, an ear ache or any other mild to moderate illness or minor trauma you'd seek care for at your doctors office or in the emergency rooms.
Because urgent care facilities are specifically designed and equipped to handle routine and urgent problems, they can control their overhead. By controlling the overhead, the cost for treatment is typically dramatically less than an emergency room. As such, urgent care centers are the logical choice to control costs both for the health care system as well as the patient who utilize the urgent care centers.
The services that are offered at good urgent care facilities are:
- Treatment for minors and adults
- Services for cuts, fractures, common injuries and common ailments
- They will have laboratory services on site as well as digital x-rays
- Car service transport available
- Vaccinations, immunizations, pre-employment physicals, physicals for work, school and sports
- Drug and alcohol screening
- Treatment, services and reporting for Worker's compensation injuries
- Physical Therapy
- Pre-offer insurance physicals
- On site medication available
- Basic counseling
- Comforting environment
Many different kinds of doctors staff an urgent care center. However the superior centers usually choose emergency room doctors to staff their centers. Emergency medicine doctors are trained to handle the urgently ill. The mark of a good emergency medicine doctor is board certification which is the acknowledgment by examination by one's peers of excellence in your field.
The health care system welcomes urgent care centers. By providing prompt, high quality service at a fraction of the cost of an emergency room, urgent care centers impact the cost of health care much less. More often, urgent care centers can deliver care in a less stressful and friendlier environment that is not sterile like a hospital.
- Access
- Quality of the Doctors that staff the Urgent Care Center
- Services Offered by the Urgent Care Center
- Latest in Equipment and Technology
- Accepts a variety of insurance coverages
Frequently patients have no idea they can be seen at an urgent care facility for their non-life threatening injuries. By avoiding the emergencies rooms for these conditions, patients and our health care system can reduce skyrocketing costs. Urgent centers fill the void between routine doctor visits and life-threatening emergencies.
Emergency rooms must be equipped and staffed to handle the most dire of emergencies. That equipment and staff is very expensive. Because of that overhead, the operation of an emergency room is very expensive. Thus when a patient reports to the emergency room with a cough or a sprained ankle, they will be treated accordingly but at a very high rate. This situation drives up costs for the patient and to our health care system.
Patients forever complain about how long it takes to be seen in an emergency room. Because emergency rooms have to treat the very ill first, as any delay could mean life or death, patients with non-life threatening injuries may wait many hours to be seen. The sorting of the less ill from the severely ill is called TRIAGE and it is that screening process which may make patients wait for hours.
For the patients who are out of town, new to a town, or perhaps it is the weekend or after 5 pm or they really don't have a doctor and they have an urgent problem but it isn't life threatening......What are they supposed to do ? If they don't know about urgent care centers, they will seek care at an emergency room.
This is where the Urgent Care Centers shine. They offer services you cant typically get at your doctor's office but could receive at an emergency room. There are not the place to go if you're having a heart attack, but are the place to go for the sore throat, the laceration, a broken finger, a headache, an ear ache or any other mild to moderate illness or minor trauma you'd seek care for at your doctors office or in the emergency rooms.
Because urgent care facilities are specifically designed and equipped to handle routine and urgent problems, they can control their overhead. By controlling the overhead, the cost for treatment is typically dramatically less than an emergency room. As such, urgent care centers are the logical choice to control costs both for the health care system as well as the patient who utilize the urgent care centers.
The services that are offered at good urgent care facilities are:
- Treatment for minors and adults
- Services for cuts, fractures, common injuries and common ailments
- They will have laboratory services on site as well as digital x-rays
- Car service transport available
- Vaccinations, immunizations, pre-employment physicals, physicals for work, school and sports
- Drug and alcohol screening
- Treatment, services and reporting for Worker's compensation injuries
- Physical Therapy
- Pre-offer insurance physicals
- On site medication available
- Basic counseling
- Comforting environment
Many different kinds of doctors staff an urgent care center. However the superior centers usually choose emergency room doctors to staff their centers. Emergency medicine doctors are trained to handle the urgently ill. The mark of a good emergency medicine doctor is board certification which is the acknowledgment by examination by one's peers of excellence in your field.
The health care system welcomes urgent care centers. By providing prompt, high quality service at a fraction of the cost of an emergency room, urgent care centers impact the cost of health care much less. More often, urgent care centers can deliver care in a less stressful and friendlier environment that is not sterile like a hospital.
About the Author:
Educating people on other choices to health care is an important factor in controlling the skyrocketing health care budget. Finding solutions like quality urgent care is one step to controlling those costs. Urgent Care Kansas City is a model urgent care facility and you can find out more by clicking the link. You can find out more information on Urgent Care of Kansas City here.