Understanding of Urgent Care and Its Services

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Understanding of Urgent Care and Its Services
What Is Urgent Care? Urgent Care is the
provision of immediate medical service offering
outpatient care for the treatment of acute and
chronic disease and injury. It needs a broad and
comprehensive fund of knowledge to offer such
care. Excellence in care for patients with
complex and or uncommon conditions is founded on
the close communication and collaboration
between the urgent care physician, the
specialists, and the primary physicians. Urgent
care is not a substitute for your primary care
physician. An urgent care facility like
Specialty Care Clinics is a suitable option when
someone's regular physician is on vacation or
unable to provide a timely appointment. Or, when
disease strikes outside of regular office hours,
urgent care offers an alternative to waiting for
hours in a hospital Emergency Room.
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Understanding The Extent of Urgent Care
Practice Urgent care practitioners are on the
"front lines" of medicine, they need to be
proficient in assessing and caring for - at least
initially - any patient who walks into an urgent
care center or urgent care clinic. For this
reason, there is some overlap in the scope of
practice between Urgent Care and all existing
medical specialties that include direct patient
care. Because of the convenience of Urgent Care
Centers, patients choose these facilities when
they are not able to see their usual doctor in a
timely fashion or choose not to go to a hospital
emergency department. For most patients seen in
an ambulatory medicine setting, the Urgent Care
specialist could fully care for the presenting
problem, either independently or in consultation
with another specialist. Sometimes patients will
need follow-up with or referral to another
specialist, transfer to an emergency department,
or direct hospitalization (with inpatient care
by the consultant). Urgent Care specialists do
not perform surgery (other than wound repair and
skin lesion removal), do not care for
inpatients, and generally do not engage in the
continuing medical care of chronic medical
problems. Of all of the existing specialties,
Urgent Care shares the most in common with
family practice and emergency medicine, even
though there is enough uniqueness of practice
that Urgent Care, in fact, is a separate
specialty with a distinct knowledge base, skill
set, and required breadth of experience. Urgent
Care shares with Family Practice its broad
scope caring for both male and female patients
of all ages with any complaint. Urgent Care
differs from Family Practice in that its main
focus is on acute medical problems. Specialization
is the result of focused attention and having
experience in a particular area, acute care
represents the majority of what Urgent
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Care specialists do - versus Family Practice
practitioners who divide their time caring for
some acute, but predominantly chronic health
problems. Because of this, their experience and
expertise in acute care are greater than that of
Family Practice practitioners. The Family
Practice's area of practice that is distinct from
Urgent Care includes continuity of medical care
and, for some Family Practice practitioners,
inpatient care and obstetrics.
As with Family Practice, Urgent Care shares a
broad scope with Emergency care as well caring
for both male and female patients of all ages
with any complaint. Urgent Care varies from
Emergency care in that its main focus is on
acute medical problems at the lower end of the
severity spectrum. Urgent Care specialists have
expertise in evaluating and treating these
patients with only simple office-based laboratory
tests (for example, urinalysis, pregnancy test,
rapid strep assay) and X-rays.
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There is no immediate access to extensive
laboratory testing or advanced imaging (for
example, CT scanning, and ultrasound). Those who
present to an urgent care center who, in the
judgment of the Urgent Care specialist, need
this, are transferred to a hospital emergency
department. Due to the simpler administrative
procedures and costs related to office-based
versus hospital-based practice, similar care in
an Urgent Care setting could generally be
provided more quickly and economically than in
an emergency care setting. The area of Emergency
care practice that is distinctive from Urgent
Care involves the definitive care of critically
sick patients and the ability to observe
patients for an extended period of time. Urgent
Care services are medically necessary services
that are needed for an illness or injury that
would not result in further disability or death
if not treated immediately, but need professional
attention and have the potential to develop such
a threat if treatment is delayed beyond 24
hours. An urgent care condition can be
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• Allergic reaction
• Nausea
• Back pain
• Pneumonia
• Conjunctivitis (Pink eye)
• Rash
• Diarrhea
• Sinusitis
• Ear infection
• Sore throat
• Fever
• Sprains/Strains
• Insect bites
• Upper Respiratory Infection
• Lacerations
• Vaginitis
• Migraine
• Vomiting
• Mononucleosis

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