HCA charging ahead with urgent-care centers and free-standing

When you meet with a minor accident or are in a need of medication for an ailment, you would go to the hospital. However, you wouldn’t wait for your doctors next regular hours to be treated. This could coincide with your medical condition or your own availability, though not really emergency, would make you want to seek medical quickly. This is when you can opt to seek an urgent care.

Urgent cares are the best when you are not in a life threatening condition but you are in need to solicit quick medical attention since you are unwell. These are set-up that are often attached to affiliated hospital but are free standing within the community.

There are privately run urgent care facilities, similar to that in the hospitals, well designed to meet the need that the hospitals, emergency room neither the doctor don’t. When you have something like a sprain or a burn, or a minor viral infection, this place is great to treat yourself.

Urgent care centers can also be approached for checking STDs and the like where people wouldn’t want to meet their regular doctors and would rather have their anonymity. They are staffed with highly qualified doctors and nurses who can attend to you immediately. There isn’t the typical waiting that you would find in the hospital’s emergency room or the waiting room, generally. Urgent care centers are definitely proving to be an acceptable place for treatment.

Are they connected to your insurance plan?

Before you face a medical emergency make sure there facilities are connected to your insurance plan.  You need to know if your card can be presented at the place you are considering for payment. That way, you don’t have to waste your time and you are aware of where to go during emergency. You never know when you’ll have a medical emergency situation.

Across America there is a wide growing array of emergency care units. Putting to count, there are almost 5,000 hospitals, 10,000 urgent care units, 2,800 retail clinics and more than more than 500 free standing EDs. This growth is option reflects for consumer’s preference for rapid treatment in convenient locations. Urgent care centers are always well received by the crowd.  Patients greatly value the convenience, short waiting and quick resolution they offer. But unfortunately they are not open throughout the day. But free standing ED’s, unlike the urgent care centers are open 24/7.

What next?

 HCA is planning on expanding the network. There is a planning for massive expansion of urgent health care and freestanding emergency departments on a large scale. The idea is to increase patient access points in 14 major markets. The president of HCA, has proposed the hospitals to use a portion of its $2.5 billion capital budget to increase the location of urgent care from 72 to 120 by the end of the year. The free-standing emergency growth to increase nationally to 80 by the beginning of next year, up by 31% from 61 locations.