Centers for urgent care gain ground

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — When his 21‚Ñ2-year-old daughter tripped at day care and cut her chin recently, Lance Moore didn’t take her to the emergency room at the nearest hospital. Instead he rushed her to an urgent-care center.

“I wanted her to get immediate attention,” said Moore, who had been to the St. Charles center before and knew the doctor who gave his daughter five stitches. “He offered to call a plastic surgeon, although he said he didn’t think that was necessary,” said Moore, who lives in Carol Stream, Ill. “He did a real nice job.”

Urgent-care centers have been gaining ground across the country recently as an attractive medical option for time-pressed families trying to avoid spending hours in a hospital ER or days waiting for a doctor’s appointment.

Sometimes known as “docs in a box,” the centers offer walk-in medical services and extended hours to customers with sore throats, ear infections, sprained or fractured limbs, simple wounds and other non-life-threatening medical problems. Doctors provide the care, assisted by nurses, and generally X-ray and laboratory services are available. Most centers are open 365 days a year, and insurance policies cover most services.

This convenience-oriented format, started more than 20 years ago, is getting a boost as hospitals and private firms build new centers, responding in part to new competition from retail clinics in Walgreens, CVS and Wal-Mart stores.

For patients, the centers offer easy access and affordable care, charging a fraction of what services would cost in an emergency room. Many insurers, keen to keep costs down, have started encouraging people to use urgent care as an alternative to ERs in the evenings or weekends when their doctors’ offices are closed.

Generally, urgent care is for common medical conditions only. Symptoms that warrant a visit to the ER include difficulty breathing, fainting, sudden dizziness, changes in mental status, severe or persistent vomiting or diarrhea, uncontrolled bleeding, changes in vision, and pain or pressure in the chest or upper abdomen, according to materials on the topic prepared by Edward Hospital.