What is Urgent Care?

Little things, like a skinned knee, can be treated at home. Life-threatening conditions, like chest pain, require a trip to the emergency department (“ED”). For everything in between, there’s Urgent Care.

Traditionally, patients without life-threatening symptoms requiring acute care had only the ED and their primary care provider to choose from. Remarkably, the number of visits to EDs has increased by approximately 40% over the last 13 years, as patients increasingly use EDs for non-life threatening events. As a result, the average ED visit in New Hampshire increased to approximately four hours in 2009. Not only are ED visits long and sometimes unpleasant, but a simple non-life threatening visit to the ED (such as for the flu or an ear ache) can easily cost up to $1,000 or more, hitting patient’s pocket’s in the form of higher co-pays and unmet deductibles, and driving up the cost of healthcare insurance for employers.

Urgent Care addresses this problem by offering extended hour, walk-in service for acute illness and injury care that is either beyond the scope or availability of the typical primary care practice. Urgent Care centers, such as ConvenientMD, treat patients of all ages, and treat a significant portion of symptoms typically presenting in EDs, such as the flu, asthma attacks, broken bones, cuts requiring stitches and more, providing a one-stop option for unscheduled, time-sensitive care.

An important element of Urgent Care is the patient-centric healthcare experience, infusing real customer service into the healthcare system. Along these lines, well managed, non-hospital affiliated, Urgent Care centers offer the following:

  • Average door-to-door patient visit times of under 45 minutes, versus more than four hours in the ED.
  • The cost of non-hospital affiliated Urgent Care visits are typically 6 times less than an ED visit, generating strong support from patients, insurance companies, and employers. Some non-hospital affiliated Urgent Care centers, such as ConvenientMD, bill at doctor office rates.
  • No appointments are required
  • Staffed by emergency medicine or urgent care trained physicians
  • Equipped with digital x-ray and lab, providing a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services
  • Open for extended hours, 7 days a week

The ability of Urgent Care centers to provide immediate care for acute, non-life threatening illness and injury is a critical component of any community’s health system. Cooperation between patients, primary care physicians, emergency departments and Urgent Care providers can create network of care options that puts the patient in the right hands at the right time for the right level of care. It’s important to note that Urgent Care centers do not replace primary care providers. Primary care providers are necessary to manage a patient’s long-term care, while Urgent Care centers can effectively treat a patient’s episodic events. Effective and well integrated Urgent Care centers communicate the care provided to patients’ primary care providers and can refer to subspecialists when needed.

All non-appointment based care providers are not created equal. Urgent Care centers have a broader and deeper scope of services than Immediate Care, Walk-In, or Retail clinics, and can treat a significant portion of ED visits. While Immediate Care, Walk-In or Retail clinics are typically administered by Nurse Practitioners or Physicians Assistants, Urgent Care centers are typically staffed by either emergency medicine or urgent care-trained Physicians and are equipped to offer a large volume of patients with a broader set of services. However, only EDs are equipped to treat life-threatening issues. Patients suffering from life-threatening issues should be treated in the nearest ED.

ConvenientMD Urgent Care

ConvenientMD is the first and only independent Urgent Care center serving the Greater Salem community, with a Concord center on the way. The organization’s world-class medical team, which includes physicians, RNs, X-ray technologists, and other friendly medical professionals, provides treatment for low- to mid-severity, non-life threatening illnesses and injuries, as illustrated below.

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Max Puyanic, CEO
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