Urgent care is an umbrella term used by the healthcare industry that refers to immediate care medical treatment for patients that need same-day appointments. Most conditions aren’t necessarily life-threatening — as long as they’re treated quickly and concisely.
Enter: urgent care. It’s the place you go when you’re not in mortal danger but you will be if you don’t get that condition looked at ASAP.
Some common urgent care conditions include:
Urgent care is also helpful for parents on weekends or hours when most doctors’ offices are closed.
Urgent Care Vs. In-Home Urgent Care
There are two types of urgent care providers: walk-in clinics and at-home care providers. Both provide similar services, yet the costs and levels of services often vary between these two providers.
Walk-In Urgent Care
In-person urgent care clinics see patients for same-day appointments. These clinics are usually located all over the country, both in major cities and in smaller towns. A simple “urgent care near me” internet search can usually put you in touch with a few clinics in your area.
Yet if you’ve ever been to an urgent care clinic, you probably know the downsides of these centers. Most of them usually are:
- Extremely busy
- Crowded with sicker patients
- More expensive than a doctor’s visit
The typical walk-in urgent care experience goes like this:
- Walk into a waiting room filled with sicker patients
- Check-in at the front desk
- Wait for a few hours
- Finally see a doctor for 10 minutes
- Pay a few hundred dollars for your appointment
While visiting a walk-in clinic may be necessary, it’s also a somewhat stressful experience — especially during a pandemic. And if you don’t have transportation or need an ambulance? Costs can be crippling.
At-Home Urgent Care
At-home urgent care centers offer high-quality medical care, virtually no wait times, and EMTs come to you — not the other way around.
The typical at-home urgent care appointment generally goes like this:
- Call the urgent care provider
- Explain your condition
- Wait (usually under an hour) for the EMT to arrive
- Get your vitals taken
- Chat with a doctor via a virtual visit with EMT assistance on a provided tablet
- Get treated
If the EMT and doctor can’t offer a treatment plan (or thinks you may need to be treated at a hospital or by a specialist), the EMT can help arrange transportation, and the doctor may be able to provide a referral.
Urgent-Care Vs. Emergency Care
Many patients that head to emergency rooms can actually be treated (and should actually be treated) by urgent care centers.
Emergency room staff treat serious cases and patients that need in-hospital or overnight care. When you head straight to an ER and don’t need this level of care, costs rise and you end up waiting around for hours exposed to sicker patients.
Add an ambulance ride to all of that? You could end up spending hundreds to thousands of dollars extra.
If you are in a life-threatening situation or do need emergency care, you should call 911 and/or head to an emergency room immediately. Yet, if your ailment doesn’t need this level of care, urgent care services could save you time and money — and prevent you from contracting a virus or illness in the waiting room.
When Should You Go to a Hospital?
It can be difficult to determine when you should go to a hospital versus an urgent care center. If you have broken bones or need an x-ray, a hospital may also be your best bet. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, you should call 911 if you are experiencing the following symptoms:
- Difficulty breathing
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain/pressure
- Upper abdominal pain/pressure
- Fainting
- Dizziness or weakness
- Changes in vision
- Confusion
- Changes in mental status
- Sudden or severe pain
- Uncontrolled bleeding
- Severe or persistent vomiting or diarrhea
- Coughing blood
- Vomiting blood
- Difficulty speaking
Eldercare
In addition to its urgent care services, at-home urgent care centers often offer services tailored specifically to the elderly.
Since older people often have difficulty with mobility issues and/or coordinating transportation to a hospital or clinic, at-home urgent care clinics can often be an amazing resource.
Just some of the conditions that urgent care centers can offer elderly patients include:
- Joint pain
- Back pain
- Sore throat
- Cough
- Arthritis
- COVID-19 testing
- Flu shots
- Geriatric falls
- Lightheadedness
- Confusion
Urgent Care Pricing
At-home urgent care pricing is somewhat similar to pricing at walk-in clinics. These companies take most medical insurance plans (and some even take Medicaid and Medicare in some states).
Some companies (like Ready) aren’t turning patients away due to a lack of funds during a pandemic.
As an ambulance ride alone could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, in-home care erases the need for an ambulance in most cases and can provide financial relief to patients that might have spent money on a taxi or other means of transportation to get to an urgent care center.
COVID-19
At-home urgent care is especially important during a pandemic. These providers can offer patients both COVID-19 testing and treatments — as well as a safe space to get medical treatment, away from sicker patients that could spread the virus.
During COVID-19, some urgent care clinics are not turning away patients due to a lack of funds or health insurance.
If you’re concerned you’ve contracted COVID (or need an antibody test), contact an at-home urgent care clinic.
Urgent Care NYC
Most at-home urgent care providers are limited to certain metro areas. Yet, during the pandemic, it’s important to offer these services in areas hit hard by COVID.
Many NYC urgent care providers are offering at-home services. Companies like Ready Responders can send an EMT to your home in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx within an hour.
If you’re concerned you need urgent care, we recommend calling Ready Responders at (917)-274-7734 to set up an in-home visit.
Ready also offers at-home COVID-19 testing in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Las Vegas, DC, and more!