Posted on 12/03/2016 5:10:37 PM PST by ProudFossil
What is the purpose of all the urgent care centers in the urban areas, specifically Albuquerque, New Mexic?
It is probably because her insurance requires they be referred. I know when my daughter had Group Health she always had to get a referral before she could go to any doctor or facility.
Unlike an ER, they don’t have to take non-paying patients.
I’ve used them for my family when the doctor’s office is closed on the weekend, and I thought it best not to wait until Monday, and knew we didn’t require the ER.
If you have chest pain or difficulty breathing call 911. If you go to urgent care, they’ll give you oxygen, aspirin, and call 911.
If it’s going to need surgical repair, go to the ER. If it’s going to kill you, go to the ER.
I’ve always been satisfied with the local urgent care for my family.
OTOH, I responded there for a patient going into anaphylactic shock (bee sting, hives, low blood pressure, wheezing, covered in sweat, no history) and the doc didn’t even know if they had Epi-pens. She lacked an ER doctor’s decisiveness.
If you want UTI relief without going to doctor..buy Apple cider vinegar WITH MOTHER. Must have on the label. Drink 2 tablespoons each day, usually 2-3 days and it is gone.
They are MDs and don't need referrals.
BTW, my insurance paid for it....all of it.
The one I went to makes appts over the phone and calls you when it's time for you to come in.
If people are bad off they send them to an ER. I think some are commected to hospitals to handel people who don't need ER...they're good for antibiotic Rx.
“I think she can go to a hospital emergency department. They would treat her there.”
Problem is insurance may soak you for costs if it’s not an “emergency” (sort of thing you’d go to the doctor for, not the ER, if open).
We have tons around here. Our local franchise is PatientFirst. I LOVE them. They know me all too well; people joke that anyone going there should just “show them your OlLineRebel card”.
We have others that are not as good as PF, although they are also franchises (mostly). They’re not even as good for hours because they only operate till 5, etc. PF always runs until 10, every single day.
But, I have experience with most of them.
Urgent care in NYS does not need referrals, but we’ve found that urgent cares are terrific when traveling.
If you get hurt out of town, no way you’re going to find a dr to take you.
And a trip to the ER is time consuming and costly as far as co-pays.
Urgent care is a God send.
Another remedy is silver biotics. I decided to try it on my elderly Dad who was given antibiotics time and time again for bladder infections. After the silver biotics . . .no more antibiotics necessary! I was amused looking at the urologist (who I detested)treating my Dad for prostate problems during every subsequent visit thumbing back through all records of previous visits. I didn’t say a word. Going through old records I found that this urologist was giving my Dad the grand daddy of antibiotics Levaquin (if you want a shocker look that one up. . .and the 30 other names in that family of antibiotics)
Ha, I am paying bills & just wrote a check to almost pay off my bill to our UC. It is staffed by two excellent, caring nurse practitioners. When I get any kind of infection I go, get checked, get the shots & meds I need. I have been many times & am always happy at the great service & wonderful care I have received. It also has really nice receptionists & is very clean.
Your story is very strange. Duh, you go when your doctor is closed or not there. My wait time has been amazingly short, BUT I do find it a bit pricey. That being said there is nothing like getting pain relief, especially on a Sunday when you have to be at work the next day. Like someone else posted they have popped up like mushrooms in our smallish town.
I think I used a broad brush. I am sure some of these clinics are good. Good luck.
Long ago when I taught at a private hippie school I had no insurance & got a UTI. I waited too long & it went systemic & I was hospitalized for a week.
I learned my lesson, never again wait!
LOL, so true.
One thing I’ve noticed here, you can go the medical facility’s website and they give you a *wait time* ...if you feeling like something the cat dragged in, and need to be seen, it’s a great feature, so you can plan.
_________________
So apparently obamacare has struck in New Mexico.
FWIW, Obamacare (ACA) has plenty of problems, but it has increased availability of "urgent care centers", as it has increased their insured customer base.
This is one reason why congressional Republicans are now leaning toward immediate "repeal" with a several year long delay in the actual cutoff and slow-walking replacement in the meantime while they work out an alternative: an immediate cut-off would likely result in the closing of a significant number of hospitals and urgent care centers, and poor and rural areas would be the hardest hit. (If you want to keep them open, they have to be subsidized either directly or via subsidising individual insurance premiums.)
And it's not practical to just let then close, in many rural areas there are no nearby alternatives.
Patient first does a nice job.
We opened an urgent care center across the street from our hospital.
It’s open 18 hours a day. Mainly it reduces the over utilization in our hospital emergency room due to a lack of primary care physicians in our area. We basically break even on the operation but the reduction of 15,000
visits to our hospital e. r. has allowed us to defer a very expensive expansion of our e.r.
We don’t look at it as a profit center per se, but as a way to more efficiently provide primary care in an underserved area. We have found that we can provide about 80% of what a primary care doc practice can.
We take walk ins and self pay patients as well.
The purpose of Urgent Care in California is to 1) provide health care to Mexicans and 2) handle gunshot wounds.
More to the point; to scam Medicare and Medicaid and auto insurance and worker’s comp.
Did the nurse tell your daughter in law that? If so, the nurse flat out lied.
That is only for the urgent care clinic associated with Presbyterian Health Services (PHS) I think that is what PHS stands for.
We have lots of Urgent Care clinics around here but so far none are open 24 hrs. Close around 8 PM. Great for walk-in care with a typical wait of one hour.
“They are like a hospital ER without the rest of the hospital attached to it.”
No, there are both standalone ERs and urgent care clinics. Different business models, different staffing, different equipment, and differing levels of care.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.