About Urgent Care
Urgent care centers provide walk-in, extended hour access for acute illness and injury care that is either beyond the scope or availability of the typical primary care practice or retail clinic. Urgent care provides many health care services in a more cost effective and efficient way than the typical Emergency Department, reserving the nation's emergency room resources for truly life-threatening conditions. There are over 8,000 urgent care centers in the US as of 2008.
Urgent care helps to improve both access to care and proper utilization of health system resources. It provides patients with medical attention for a large number of acute conditions that their primary physician may be unavailable or unable to treat, and when an emergency room visit is not warranted. A recent CDC study showed that 80% of cases in emergencies rooms are not true emergencies, and therefore could have been more appropriately treated in urgent care centers, relieving the often over-burdened emergency rooms of those non-life-threatening conditions. (Life threatening conditions should always be treated in an emergency facility.)
Urgent care providers fill the "gap" that can exist between the primary physician and an emergency room. The ability of an urgent care center to provide episodic care for acute, non-life threatening illness and injury is a critical component of any community’s health system. Cooperation between patients, primary physicians, emergency departments and urgent care providers can create a network of care options that puts the patient in the right hands at the right time for the right level of care.
If you are looking for an urgent care center in your area, click here to go to our By State Listing.
Urgent Care Industry Growth
There is an ongoing, growing demand for urgent care centers as emergency rooms are continually struggling to meet the flow of patients seeking care. New urgent care centers emerge almost weekly across the US to meet this demand. If you are interested in opening your own urgent care center, we encourage you to become a member of UCAOA, join our online forums, and attend a conference to learn more.
