Here in the United States, urgent care centers and medical clinics are making a huge change in the way that people seek out medical treatment. For one thing, urgent care centers are on the rise, with more than 7,300 of them located all throughout the country according to data that was gathered back in the year of 2016. In the years that have followed since, this number has only continued to grow – and is likely to continue to climb in the years that are to come as well. In fact, more than a quarter of the patient population here in the United States alone has visited an urgent care location at least once over the course of the last 24 months, the last two years or so.

But why choose urgent care centers over other forms of medical treatment, such as going to see a general care practitioner or even going to the emergency room? For one thing, the latter options for treatment are not always convenient, and more than 20% of people who visited urgent care centers said that they did so because of the convenience. Some doctor’s offices close relatively early on in the day, and many are closed during weekend hours. For those who develop a medical concern in that time frame, the only other option aside from an urgent care center is the emergency room.

And getting emergency care from any given emergency room is not ideal for many reasons, unless you truly are having a medical emergency. For one thing, around 22% of all urgent care patients said that urgent care centers appealed to them because of the shorter wait times that tend to be average in such facilities. After all, more than 90% of all urgent care centers have an average wait time of no longer than a mere half of an hour, with more than half of all such urgent care centers boasting average wait times of no more than 15 minutes. The typical emergency room, on the other hand, is likely to have an average wait time that extends as long as a full hour – and will often even surpass that, depending on the particular emergency room in question.

The care that is provided by urgent care centers is of a higher quality than many people realize as well. As a matter of fact, less than 5% of all cases seen in the typical urgent care environment will ever need to be transferred to a hospital setting for more comprehensive care. Conversely, however, we actually see that as many as 65% of all cases seen in the typical hospital would ultimately have been better suited for care at any given urgent care environment. In fact, the patients for who this was the case would likely have saved a great deal of money and time alike in seeking this type of care instead of hospital care.

For instance, up to 80% of all urgent care centers are actually able to provide care and diagnosis for fractures, a fact that many people might find that they are surprised to hear. In addition to this, up to 70% of all urgent care centers can provide IV fluids, at least to some extent. With up to 20,000 doctors and medical professionals working in the urgent care centers found throughout the country, the wealth of medical knowledge and comprehensive medical care found that these urgent care locations is quite impressive indeed.

Of course, urgent care centers are able to handle much less severe cases as well. Take, for example, your typical ear infection. Ear infections are commonly seen among young children, and are typically treated quite easily with a course of antibiotics. In addition to this, urinary tract infections can be easily treated and diagnosed in most urgent care centers as well, again requiring a simple round of antibiotics in the vast majority of all diagnosed cases here in the United States.

At the end of the day, urgent care centers have become hugely important here in the United States, there is simply no denying this fact. With urgent care centers, treatment is easy to get.