Health care costs and insurance rates are increasing at double digit rates, averaging over 10 per cent a year. Forty-five million Americans are uninsured and those with coverage are paying larger deductibles and co-payments. Physician’s offices are being squeezed by increasing overhead and malpractice insurance costs. Hospital emergency departments have a high number of nonpaying patients.
These pressures are requiring health care providers to practice more efficiently. This is changing the delivery of our health care. The Physician / Hospital centered practice has been replaced by a Patient centered model, where patients are expected to help control costs by selecting services more carefully. In this decentralized model, care is coordinated between several different providers, each with a different role. Patients are more responsible for their health and health care.
Urgent Care Clinics serve an unique role in this new health care system. Immediate access to a Physician allows diagnostic tests and treatments to be started in a timely manor. Early treatment improves outcomes and reduces the length of time and stress of having an illness. The indirect costs, time away from family, school or work, are reduced. And if it is not a true emergency, treatment at an urgent care clinic is less expensive than an emergency room visit.
If you do not see the service that you need listed in the column on the left, please call for more information. We specifically do not provide ongoing primary care services or chronic pain management.
