Urgent care facilities are becoming more popular among individuals seeking convenient, economical care for non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries, as evidenced by trends at the Apple Valley Medical Center. For the first ten months in 2008, the 24-hour Urgent Care at the Apple Valley Medical Center saw 33,000 patient visits, up 6.1 percent from the same period in 2007. For the full year 2007, approximately 37,000 patient visits were recorded, more than in many Emergency Departments of busy hospitals.
November 10-14 was the first Urgent Care Awareness Week, as designated by the Urgent Care Association of America.
The Apple Valley Medical Center has offered 24-hour Urgent Care since it opened in 1974, just ahead of the urgent care trend. Even today, 24-hour urgent care facilities are rare. “We believe individuals are using urgent care facilities more often because the wait time and cost are generally less than at an Emergency Department,” said David Maas, M.D., Medical Director of the Urgent Care at the Apple Valley Medical Center. “Without urgent care, patients must wait for an appointment with their primary care physician or make an expensive visit to a hospital emergency room to wait sometimes hours before being seen.”
At the Apple Valley Medical Center Urgent Care, a licensed, Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)-certified physician is on duty 24 hours a day. Registered nurses (RNs) on duty also have ACLS certification, and some of them are Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Trauma Core certified, as well. There is a wide selection of diagnostic and therapeutic services, including 24-hour x-ray, laboratory testing and procedure rooms for lacerations and fractures. Access to an on-site pharmacy is available during extended hours Monday through Saturday.
The Urgent Care at Apple Valley Medical Center prides itself on service. “In a March 2008 time study, we calculated our average patient time from door to door at one hour, including peak times,” said Maas. “We have a policy that if the patient wait time hits one hour, we call in the ‘on call’ physician.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 40 percent of visits to hospital emergency departments are for non-emergencies, creating average wait times of 3.2 hours.
Most Urgent Care patients come in with coughs, infections, sprains or flu. When someone arrives who needs a higher level of care, staff members stabilize the patient and arrange for an ambulance to take the patient to a hospital. “We have a working relationship with United Hospital’s Nasseff Heart Center with average door-to-treatment times of less than 90 minutes for patients with serious heart conditions,” said Maas. However, he stressed that someone with chest pain, severe bleeding or serious injuries should call 911 or head directly to a hospital Emergency Department.
In addition to the 24-hour Urgent Care, the Apple Valley Medical Center includes the independent Apple Valley Medical Clinic of 13 family practice physicians, serving patients from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., five days a week. There also are 26 specialty physicians seeing patients through the United Specialty Center. Specialists on the campus provide services in allergy and asthma; ankle and foot; cardiology; colon and rectal surgery; dermatology; ear, nose and throat; general surgery; low back & neck care; neurology; ob/gyn; ophthalmology; orthopedics; plastic surgery; podiatry and urology. The center also houses United Medical Imaging for digital mammography, ultrasound, CT and MRI scans; a full-service pharmacy; and physical medicine and rehabilitation care through Integrated Medical Rehabilitation.
Comments