Urgent care facilities are quickly becoming a preferred medical care option across the United States. Because they typically are a more affordable and reasonable option than an emergency room and provide excellent service and a walk in clinic, urgent care facilities are incredibly popular and convenient.

Urgent care centers typically provide immediate health care, but not for life threatening ailments. They also prescribe antibiotics, pain medication and evaluate the needs of a patient, all within a single visit. For the most part, most urgent care centers have licensed physicians on site at all times, and there are some urgent care centers that are open 24 hours a day, so patients can come in and get care at their convenience.

Urgent care centers are fairly new to the health care industry. However, they pick up slack for the thousands of doctors offices and emergency rooms that are overwhelmed due to the volume of patients. Generally, people go to urgent care centers for things like strep throat, ear infections, gastrointestinal problems, cuts and bruises, and other minor injuries and illnesses.

The Urgent Care Association of America reports that over 80 percent of urgent care patients actually wait 15 minutes or less for treatment, which contrasts greatly to emergency rooms and doctors offices. Furthermore, the typical emergency room visit can cost upwards of $500, while a trip to an urgent care center generally costs less than a tenth of that.

Though urgent care centers generally deal with minor problems that would normally require a visit to a primary care doctor’s office, many urgent care centers are starting to offer advanced services like routine physicals, blood work and even x-rays.

At the end of the day, the advancements in medical technology benefit millions of people in the United States. The option to go to an urgent care center to get immediate medical treatment on a walk-in basis is extremely convenient and affordable for many Americans, and as such, urgent care centers are quickly becoming immensely popular and are growing throughout the country rampantly. Visit here for more information: www.immediateclinic.com