When you feel yourself getting sick, landing an appointment at the doctor’s office can take days, but a trip to the emergency room can feel extreme. Urgent care clinics stand as a middle ground between the two, offering the urgency of the ER with the speed and convenience of a doctor’s office. Whether you have the flu, broke your wrist, or just need a sports physical for your kid, urgent care facilities can handle it all. Here are a few crucial perks to this type of healthcare.

Reasons to Visit an Urgent Care

1. Less Expensive

A trip to the emergency room can be costly, which is why it’s important to identify whether or not your symptoms warrant a hospital visit. For less critical health concerns, urgent care can provide a wide variety of services with co-pays at a fraction of the cost. This distinction can be crucial for families concerned with racking up medical bills and who avoid medical treatment altogether as a result.

2. Shorter Wait Times

Since a hospital deals with more severe health emergencies, you will often have to wait for a while to receive treatment. At an urgent care, you will speak to a doctor much sooner, as most patient concerns do not require hours of care. In fact, an urgent care visit—beginning to end—typically lasts about an hour, whereas a visit to the emergency room will usually take well over an hour of waiting, not including treatment.

3. No Appointment Needed

Unlike a doctor’s office, urgent care clinics welcome walk-in patients. This convenience is essential for mornings when you wake up with a head cold or when you unexpectedly twist your ankle. Urgent care can diagnose a wide spread of issues through lab tests, x-rays, and one-on-one diagnostics, and they can prescribe you the necessary treatment or medication you need to tackle the rest of your week. If you want to discuss your overall wellness with one of their primary care doctors, though, many urgent care clinics can also set up an appointment as needed.

4. Quality Care

At urgent care clinics, the medical staff treating you are certified physicians and nurses, just like you would find at a doctor’s office or emergency room. The doctors that treat you specialize in internal medicine and can even have other specialties as well, such as rheumatology. Their mission is to help you live healthier lives without the hassle of appointments or expensive hospital visits, and they will ensure you receive the care you need.

Are you feeling under the weather? The experts at Urgent & Primary Care will offer fast and effective care for any illness or injury impeding your week. From x-rays to flu shots, their Albany, NY, based team will help you solve any mild to moderate health issue with skill and compassion. Their father-daughter duo of doctors also specializes in rheumatology, so they can also develop long-term strategies to manage rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic health issues. For more information, give them a call at (518) 479-5240 or visit their website today.