How Walk-in Clinics Are Transforming Healthcare as We Know It – With our regular doctors requiring an appointment to be placed weeks in advance and emergency rooms being backed up, there has to be a better way to get healthcare. Fortunately, there is. Walk-in clinics are a popular, modern-day way to get the medical care you require for non-emergency health issues.
Here’s how walk-in clinics are transforming the healthcare system for the better:
Shorter Waits
One of the best perks of walk-in clinics is their Instacare type of approach. Compared to a regular doctor’s office or the emergency room, walk-in clinics are quick to check into, often requiring only about 5 to 15 minutes of wait time, and quickly, you are seen by one of the doctors or medical assistants on duty at the time.
Part of the reason for the shorter wait is for two reasons: because unless you request a certain doctor, you can be seen by whichever doctor is available first and because patients go to walk-in clinics for faster and less severe situations, making each visit shorter.
Less Expensive
Going to a walk-in clinic for your medical needs is going to cost significantly less than going to your primary care doctor or the emergency room. With health insurance, if covered by your plan, a visit to a walk-in clinic can often range around just $25 to $35 for the visit, compared to hundreds of dollars with health insurance for one visit to the emergency room.
Improved Accessibility
Before, unless you went to the emergency room or scheduled an appointment in advance, you’d be lucky to get into your doctor’s office for quick and unexpected medical help. Nowadays, several walk-in clinics within a 10- to 15-minute drive are often available in most towns and cities, giving the public many options.
The improved accessibility is convenient in terms of transportation, and if a patient has a bad experience at one clinic or if their insurance isn’t accepted at one facility, they can easily go to another nearby clinic instead. After all, medical care shouldn’t be a luxury, but rather, something that is easily accessible for everyone.
Freeing Up the Emergency Room
The benefits of walk-in clinics don’t just benefit the individual patient but actually have benefits on the healthcare system as a whole. With multiple walk-in urgent care centers popping up around town, this significantly reduces how many people go to the emergency room to get quick, basic medical care.
By freeing up the emergency room from patients with less serious conditions, this means that those with more significant medical needs will be able to more promptly get the care they require in an emergency setting. This makes getting medical care faster for everyone overall.
Conclusion
With most of the average person’s medical visits being non-life threatening yet urgent, it’s important that we all have access to healthcare at our fingertips without the need for going to an emergency room. That’s what walk-in clinics are for. When you need quick bloodwork, a simple diagnosis, or general medical advice, a walk-in clinic can usually be your best bet.
Poppy Watt