byAlma Abell

It’s happened to every family. The baby wakes up with a fever on Sunday morning. Junior splits his lip open at a Saturday afternoon little league game. Mom or Dad comes home early from work with a stomach bug. The family’s regular doctor’s office is either closed or fully booked. There are two options. The first is the emergency room. Unfortunately, that choice can result in a long wait time, and an expensive hospital bill. The second option is to visit a Doctor’s Office in Middletown NY that provides urgent care services. Urgent care is a great way to deal with minor medical emergencies.

Urgent care centers are staffed with board certified physicians, nurse practitioners, RNs, and other qualified medical staff. In addition to having personnell available to evaluate at treat patients Orange Urgent Care has the equipment on site to perform x-rays and do lab work. The ability to receive lab results quickly means that doctors can start patients on anti-biotics or other medications immediately. Anyone who has ever suffered from strep throat or an ear infection knows how important this is to getting better quickly.

These days, most families are concerned with keeping their health care costs down. This includes avoiding high co-payments and penalties. Many insurance companies charge a higher co-payment for emergency room visits than for visits to the doctor’s office. In addition to this, there may also be an additional penalty charged if the insurance company determines the visit to the emergency room was not necessary. Fortunately patients who use a Doctor’s Office in Middletown NY for urgent care services are usually only charged the standard doctor’s visit co-payment.

Finally, the issue of convenience should not be overlooked. It is very rare that a doctor’s office schedules appointments on weekends or after five in the evenings. Urgent care centers on the other hand have hours every day of the week, and are able to schedule same day appointments around their customers busy schedules. In addition to this, urgent care medical centers are also able to accept walk-ins.

Families who wish to receive high quality medical care that works around their schedules, and save money should become familiar with their local urgent care office. When small emergencies come up, urgent care centers are the ideal middle ground between the emergency room and the family’s primary care physician.