Whenever someone gets hurt or ill and need professional medical attention, it is important that someone nearby (such as a parent or co-worker) can look up medical care centers in the area. In particular, after hours medical care facilities are necessary if the patient needs help late at night, since not all urgent care centers or emergency care providers are open 24 hours a day. So, if a victim needs help, a helper can look up local walk in clinics or emergency care centers as needed, and specify their city or town’s name and their ZIP code to keep the results local. Doing this may bring up a list of nearby clinics of the necessary type, along with the name, hours, and address of each one. Finding an open clinic is easy during the day, and later at night, after hours medical care from 24 hour emergency care clinics or urgent care clinics is necessary.
Finding Emergency Services
There are a few levels of medical care that a patient might need, and the highest one is emergency care. This is provided by a hospital’s ER or an emergency care clinic, and the doctors and physicians at these sites will have the training and medicine necessary to save a life that is in critical condition. An after hours emergency room is the right type of after hours medical care for a patient who is badly injured late at night, and some emergency providers are indeed open 24 hours a day.
What might bring a patient to emergency care? Broken arms and legs are a common reason to seek emergency care, and the same is true for head injuries or eyeball wounds. Bullet or stab wounds are also serious trauma that require the ER, and such wounds may bleeding heavily. Chest pain or difficulty breathing also merit a visit to the ER, since such conditions may soon turn life threatening, if they are not already. And what about abdominal pain? Most cases of abdominal pain are in fact harmless, but if that pain is sudden, severe, and/or long lasting, then a visit to the ER is recommended. The underlying cause may be serious, such as cancer or internal bleeding.
The ER should not be treated as a universal healthcare provider, though, since it’s best reserved for patients in dire need, and patients with minor medical issues ought to visit urgent care clinics instead. But if it is not clear what level of care a patient needs, the helper may look for hybrid clinics, which offer emergency and urgent medical care side by side. Some of these flexible clinics might be open 24 hours a day and thus offer after hours medical care for patients who need it at night.
Urgent Care Done Right
While emergency centers handle life threatening medical cases, urgent care centers and walk in clinics can handle nearly everything else. This is a large and popular business, and over 2,500 urgent care centers can be found across the U.S. today. They tend to be small and independent clinics, staffed with nurse practitioners and physicians who can treat a variety of minor medical issues. Many of these numerous urgent care centers can be found in strip malls, while others are found in retailers such as grocery stores (retail clinics), and some are even found in hospitals (they provide care that is distinct from the hospital’s). Most often, urgent care centers are relatively inexpensive and quick to visit, especially compared to the ER, so their service is often known as “convenient care.”
A patient may visit a local walk in clinic, for example, if they need a prescription drug refill, and most urgent care centers (especially retail ones) have pharmacies in them. Patients may also visit during influenza season to get medicinal relief from the common cold and flu. These clinics can provide care for a sprained wrist or ankle, and four in five of them can also take care of bone fractures. Meanwhile, staff at an urgent care site can provide stitches and bandages for shallow cuts, and they can also provide lotion and ointment for sunburn and skin rashes. Many guests also visit due to having upper respiratory issues.
