Concept Of Walk-in Clinics

Walk in clinic can also be recognized as suitable Care Clinic (CCC), is the type of clinics to serve the routine family illness and informal health problems. These can be located in markets, shopping malls and pharmacies etc. Walk in clinic provides an affordable cost, fast and handy health care, while you are suffering with some routine type of issue and you are not capable to wait for longer time duration to get some specialists appointment. These provide instant medical treatment for non-life threatening injury and illness. Usually at some walk in clinic, you have to pay by yourself on the same visit unlike the hospitals where they bill you or to cover your company. At some walk in clinic you do not need to get any appointment before time but if they are having many patient visitors then you may have to wait for your turn. At such walk in clinic often some staff nurse along with nurse practitioner or doctor serves the visitors.
Walk in clinic is small in size and bears limited resources and remains open for longer time durations in a day. It has the advantage that there can be taken care of emergencies which are not much serious and you do not need to wait for a longer time duration to get served and quite inexpensive too. It usually has the laboratory, X-Ray and Ultrasound facility as well and some people call it urgent care clinic too. Some other conventions which can be used to call are retail based clinics or walk-in medical clinics. Currently, there are over 1,000 CCCs (Walk in Clinic) located throughout the United States. Most clinics are open seven days a week, twelve hours a day during the workweek and eight hours a day on the weekends. It is expected that the number of Walk in Clinic (s) will rise dramatically in near future due to their instant and cost effective nature.
Walk in clinic (s) provides preventive care service including health screening, vaccinations, and physical exams. They sometime also serve as sample collection points for blood, urine and feces for laboratory tests as well, if they dont have their own laboratory infrastructure, and then these samples are sent to some renowned lab to get the detailed investigation reports. A walk in clinic can offer a narrow range of services which is usually limited to 25 – 30 of the most common diagnoses. Such limited scope of services is seen in both nurse practitioner and physician-staffed walk in clinic (s).
Normally walk in clinic provides the following range of services in the treatment of common family illnesses;
Cold and Flu
Sinus Infections or Upper Respiratory Infections
Allergies
Dental Care
Minor Injuries, Burns, Sprains and Rashes
Bladder Infections
Pink Eye or Styles
Sore or Strep Throat
Headaches
Influenza and Common Cold Symptoms
Head lice
Ringworms
Minor Injuries
Medicine or Chemical Reaction
Warts
Sprains and Strains
Skin Conditions, Such as Warts or Eczema
Bronchitis
Ear Infections, Earache and Fever
Flu or Tetanus Vaccinations
Pregnancy Tests
Urinary Tract Infections
Diarrhea and Intestinal Infections
Such emergencies which are life endangering demands proper care and in any of following condition it is advised to directly go for hospital emergency instead of clinics;
Serious Chest Pain and Shortness of Breath
Major Burns
Life Threatening Head Traumas
Emergency Childbirth
Seizures
Bleeding that does not stop
Drug Over Dose or other Toxic Condition
Life Threatening Injuries
Many managed care organizations (MCOs) now encourage their customers to utilize the urgent care option. The Urgent Care Association of America established criteria for urgent care centers (Walk in clinic) in April 2009. This criterion defines scope of service, hours of operation, and staffing requirements. Information and Certification criteria are available to the public at;

http://www.ucaoa.org/recognition_certification_criteria.php

About the Author:
Instant Medical Care is one of the good providers which are providing health care & Walk in clinics services to people in distress.