Americans young and old will sometimes suffer from minor or even major health issues, and when they do, it is essential to visit a walk in clinic, an emergency care clinic, or ask the doctors in their area for a diagnosis. A patient may have a responsible adult nearby look up medical centers where they may be treated, or find a doctor’s officer to visit and ask the doctors there about the patient’s condition. Many urgent care clinics are open for a wide range of hours per day, and when someone look them up online, they may find each clinic’s hours, address, name, and anything else that they need to know. A local emergency room or other doctor’s office may also be found. And some doctors may even be found and consulted entirely online.
This describes care for minor, non life-threatening illnesses and wounds for patients. Many thousands of urgent care and walk in clinics can be found across the United States today, and they tend to be small, independent clinics. Some of these clinics may form small local networks with each other, and some of them are built into other structures. Some clinics are fond inside hospitals, but one should note that the clinics’ services and staff are distinct and separate from those of the hospital at large. Meanwhile, retail clinics are found inside large retailers such as Target and Walgreens, making them easy to find and get parking for. Some shoppers may visit these retailers for their shopping, and stop by the clinic’s pharmacy to get a prescription drug refill. In other cases, a clinic may be built into a strip mall.
Why might someone visit such a clinic? The staff, made up of nurse practitioners and physicians, can take care of a wide variety of wounds and illnesses. Patients may visit to get medicine for relief against the common cold or flu, for example, and they may get ointment or lotion for a rash, such as from a bad case of poison ivy. Four out of five such clinics may also treat bone fractures, and many of them can also take care of ankle and wrist sprains (common problems among athletes). Or, patients may visit the urgent care center in their area for stitches and bandages for a cut, such as if they stepped on broken glass or mishandled a knife. Upper respiratory problems are another common reason to visit these clinics. Ordinary clinics may also have a pharmacy on hand.
Some Americans have their own private physician with whom they may get an appointment to visit, while other doctors admit many different patients who arrive at their offices. Some of these doctors are generalists, while others are specialists who may emphasize care for the ears, nose, and throat (ENT doctors), or they may specialize in the heart, the skeleton, or even the reproductive system. Such doctors often get many patients who visit them, and they may have a full schedule. Someone looking to ask the doctors in their area about their health problem may have to conduct a wide search to find an open doctor to visit. But this may prove difficult sometimes, and some patients lack transport to a doctor’s office or may have an intense fear of germs. Should this be the case, such patients may instead ask the doctors online.
Telemedicine is a young but popular field of healthcare today, and it entails a patient having live web chat with a doctor through their computer. The patient never even visits the doctor’s office; instead, the patient may ask the doctors about the nature of their symptoms, and video chat allows them to provide visual aids as well. This is helpful for patients who can’t actually visit the doctor’s office for one reason or another, and it may limit the risks of patients in the waiting room or even the exam room spreading infections to each other. A patient may conduct a simple online search to get the most out of this, such as “virtual doctors in Seattle WA” or “video chat with doctors in San Diego CA” and find a doctor Such doctors may have online access to those patients’ medical records, too.