It is a simple truth that in everyday life, Americans young or old may suffer from wounds, injuries, or other medical conditions that calls for clinic care or the best doctors in one’s area. A medical clinic can do a lot of good for a patient, and often, a medical clinic may be just an Internet search away. However, there is more than one way to get medical attention, and visiting the wrong sort of medical clinic can be trouble. Everyday, minor illness or wounds call for a walk in clinic. Such a medical clinic may be easy to find, and they often have broad hours of operation. Meanwhile, a victim with a life-threatening illness or injury or other condition needs emergency care. A walk in medical clinic cannot offer that kind of medical attention, but a hospital can. Any responsible adult will know how to find the correct type of medical clinic and take a patient there. What is there to know about medical care today?

Visiting the ER

The ER, the emergency room, may be found in any hospital in the United States today. Emergency medical care is provided when doctors and physicians, with the right training and equipment and medicine, can handle any life-threatening issue with a patient. These doctors can be a patient out of critical condition and get them stabilized, and a life can be saved if a person brings the victim to the ER right away. Major medical problems such as broken arms or legs, for example, can be treated here, as can bullet or stab wounds or head or eye injuries. A patient who is bleeding out, or who has a broken rib puncturing a wound, will certainly need emergency medical care right away. Serious chest pain or difficulty breathing can also turn life-threatening at any time, so any patient suffering from that must be brought to emergency care right away.

It should be noted, however, that not anyone with a medical problem should visit the ER. Americans today are urged to visit a walk in clinic for minor wounds or illness, since the doctors at the ER must save their time and attention for those in critical condition. Many ER patients, in fact, could have and should have visited a walk in medical clinic.

A Walk In Clinic

As mentioned above, everyday wounds or minor illnesses call for a visit to a walk in clinic, and there are many thousands of them across the United States. Most major urban areas will have at least one such clinic, and they tend to be small, independent facilities that may be part of a small local network of other clinics. If such a clinic is running smoothly, the nurse practitioners and physicians on staff can see about three patients per hour. A guest may expect a wait time of about 15 minutes or so if everything is running smoothly. What is more, many of these clinics may accept various healthcare insurance policies, but patients may want to check ahead time to see if a nearby clinic accepts their insurance policy.

Some medical clinics are in fact retail clinics. This means that they are built into larger retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, or Walgreens, and they may have similar hours of operation. These large retailers are often easy to find and have ample parking for guests, and someone who needs urgent care can take advantage of this. These retail clinics often have a pharmacy on hand as well, where patients can get their drug prescriptions refilled as needed.

These clinics can treat a wide assortment of medical issues. Four out of five such clinics in the United States can treat bone fractures, and most of them can handle ankle and wrist sprains. Nearly 25,000 Americans suffer from ankle sprains every day, so these clinics are important. These clinics may also treat upper respiratory infections, and ointment and lotion may be provided for rashes or other skin irritation and allergies. Patients with the cold or flu can visit to get medicine for symptom relief, and the nurses at these clinics may also offer stitches and bandages for shallow cuts. Most clinics have a pharmacy in them for refilling drug prescriptions as well.