How do you know when to visit your doctor versus the emergency room versus seeing a specialist? On top of that, you can now search online for health-related information and even order at home STD testing, for example. With so many different options available to you, it can be difficult knowing what the best choice is. Each choice comes with its own set of pros and cons to consider before making a final decision. You want to make the most of your time and your money rather than wasting it on a rash decision.
Interested in learning more about when to visit family care providers, urgent care facilities, or the emergency room? Keep reading for more information regarding the different variables about each choice.
How to Know Where to Go for Medical Assistance
1. Family Care Physicians
It?s always important to have a family health care clinic that you regularly visit. You want to make sure you have doctors who know your family, especially if you have children. That way you feel comfortable going into the office with a doctor that you have researched and chosen to care for your family.
Whenever you need an annual check up or physical, it?s best to go to your family doctor for this. It?s not emergent and you don?t need anything special done. You can also plan to visit your doctor for regular appointments regarding any medications you may need filled.
2. Urgent care clinic
An urgent care clinic is an ideal place to go if you have any sudden illness or injury. Most of the time, you can save money and time by visiting an urgent care clinic over a regular doctor?s office or the emergency room. The mean wait time you may have in an emergency room can be up to 58 minutes long. By visiting an urgent care clinic you could get into a doctor in much less time.
Doctors at urgent care clinics are just as knowledgeable and certified to handle anything that comes their way.
3. Emergency room
You should always head straight to an emergency room with any illness or injury that needs immediate attention by a doctor, a surgeon, or a specialist. Visiting your local doctor?s office will not be enough, especially if it is after hours or on the weekend. When you visit an emergency room, you can make sure that whoever is sick or injured has the best shot at a full recovery being in a hospital surrounded by professionals.
One example of when you may want to go to the emergency room is if an elderly person you know seems to be suffering from memory loss. Once you are over the age of 65, there is a one in twenty chance you could suffer from dementia. While it may not be that, you always want to get checked out by a specialist to rule out dementia and other diseases like Alzheimer?s disease. Since rates of depression also range up to 13% for elderly, it?s important to have the elderly fully assessed every once in a while at your local doctor?s office.
Keep in mind that when you visit the emergency room, it can end up being expensive. Averages costs come in around $1,300, according to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.
4. At home help
Some medical tests can even be done at home to save you time. You won?t have to make an appointment to have an at home STD testing, for example. You can speak with your doctor if you are curious as to how the process works. For fast and quick results that don?t take much effort from you, consider looking into at home STD testing and other types of testing that you can do at home. Sometimes, these processes work so quickly that your at home STD testing can be done in one day so you get quick results.
Which of these options do you choose most often? Will you start choosing a different option after reviewing this information? Let us know in the comments about how you decide which clinic or office to go to.