Your health doesn’t always follow your doctor’s office hours and even if you need help during their times of operation, that doesn’t mean that they are doing to be able to get you an appointment that day. When you need medical attention for an injury or illness and you can’t get into your regular office, you will likely be debating on going to either an emergency room in Sherman TX or an urgent care. It’s important to know the differences between the two and what they should be used to ensure that you are making the right decision when it comes to your health needs. Urgent care centers are meant to treat issues that are not life-threatening but still need medical attention quickly. Emergency rooms are for people who are facing more serious issues or that may require more intensive care that cannot easily be arranged otherwise.
There are a lot of differences between the two types of medical establishments and here are just a few things to consider.
You Have Choices When It Comes To Healthcare
Patients are now finding that they have more choices when it comes to where and how they receive their healthcare services. There are a lot of factors such as speed, quality of care, and large economic variables that go into the decision-making process of a patient choosing to see a medical professional. Currently, there are more than twice as many urgent care centers as there are emergency rooms in the United States and many of them are planning on adding new locations or expanding on the ones that are currently in operation. In comparison, a study has shown that in 2010, around half of all emergency rooms in urban areas were either “at” or “over” capacity. With around 9,000 urgent care centers in operation in 2012 compared to the 4,461 emergency rooms that were operating in the United States at the same time, it is likely that you are closer to an urgent care than you are an emergency room.
The average cost of an urgent care visit, when compared to the cost of a visit to an emergency room in Sherman TX or another part of the United States, is considerably less. While the costs will vary depending on what type of treatment that you need, the average cost in 2011 for an urgent care visit in the United States was just under around $200 while an emergency room visit in 2010 was almost $1,000, on average. This is especially important for people who are uninsured or underinsured.
Research has shown that many visits to the emergency room could have actually been handled at a location like a retail clinic or an urgent care. If more people chose to get care at an urgent care instead of an emergency room, it could potentially save the economy of the United States billions of dollars in the process. Statistics show that up to 27.1% of all visits to the emergency room could have been handled in a different manner.
On a convenience level, urgent care visits tend to take a lot less time than receiving care in an emergency room. In fact, more than 88% of patients were able to get served at an urgent care in an hour or less when compared to just 12.5 of patients who decided to visit an emergency room. By choosing to seek care at an urgent care facility, you are also freeing up important resources for patients in life-threatening conditions.
