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October 20, 2008
by Dr. Loeffler, Lyon and De Pinto
Urgent Care
Many people that come to visit our urgent care centers, Gulf Coast Medical Group Urgent Care on Venice Avenue, Central Sarasota Parkway in The Oaks Plaza and Englewood Walk-In on Dearborn Street, have asked the question - what is an urgent care center? We thought we would take the opportunity to educate our community on this type of medical care.
Urgent care is defined as the delivery of ambulatory medical care outside of a hospital emergency department on a walk-in basis without a scheduled appointment.
Gulf Coast Medical Group Urgent Care treats many problems that can be seen in a primary care physician's office, but urgent care centers offer some services that are generally not available in primary care physician offices. Some of these services are:
- X-ray, allowing for treatment of minor fractures and foreign bodies, such as nail gun injuries. Minor trauma rooms allow for repair of minor and moderate-severity lacerations can be treated in an urgent care center.
- Laboratory and minimal pharmacy dispensing.
The value of Urgent Care is that it can provide a significant savings to the patients and insurers over the alternative of hospital emergency departments for care that can not be delayed until an appointment at a physicians office is available. At Guld Coast Medical Group Urgent Care, the fees associated with the visit are the same as if the patient would be charged in the physician office.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), patient visits to hospital emergency departments currently average 3.2 hours. Many of the problems currently treated in hospital emergency departments, however, can recieve timely treatment in less than one hour in an urgent care center. The CDC has reported that approximately 40% of visits to hospital emergency departments are for non-urgent or semi-urgent problems that can be treated in the urgent care setting. The urgent care center is a solution to aid in the overcrowding of emergency departments.
Gulf Coast Medical Group Urgent Care offers extended hours and is open on weekends for patients to receive treatment when their personal physician is not available.
The urgent care center is a compliment to the primary care office. Urgent care centers function as overflow for the public, when timely appointments to a primary care physician office are not available or after regular office hours when patient needing immediate attention would otherwise go to the hospital emergency department.
Urgent care is a fast growing sector of the health care industry. Gulf Coast Medical Group Urgent Care offers timely, convenient and appropriate are to members of our community, from pediatrics to geriatrics, who have illnesses or injuries that are of an acute nature. Urgent care can take care of injuries of acuity higher than generally seen in a primary care physician office, but yet lower acuity than requiring care in a hospital emergency department. Our urgent care locations offer an overflow outlet for the community when an appointment is not available at a primary care physician office.
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