I know that Urgent Care is easy. And the hours are better.
And you’re busy. But there are just some things that shouldn’t be seen at
Urgent Care. To avoid the frustration of multiple trips, waiting too long, leaving
with no answers, or being judged based on your chief complaint (it happens; I’m
not proud of it, but at least I’m honest), try to follow these rules.
1) We
do not have unlimited access to specialists, nor will the specialists see you
sooner if you are in the Urgent Care. We get countless walk-ins and even referrals
from doctors wanting their patients to have an echocardiogram or EEG, see the
pediatric dentist, or get in sooner with their rheumatologist. It’s not going
to happen. If it’s truly emergent, you may be admitted at our main campus and
see those specialists within 24 hours, who will then decide on any workup/treatment. Otherwise,
we have to go through the same channels your pediatrician does to get to the
specialists, and the vast majority of the time, we are only consulting by
phone, often with a resident, fellow, or mid-level provider. The end result is
usually adding you to their growing appointment list, often months out. If you
want a specialist, have your doctor call them instead.
2) Please
don’t come in with 6 months of chronic symptoms without seeing your regular
doctor first. If you’ve had something going on for more than a few weeks and
haven’t been able to solve the problem with Dr. Google or with multiple trips
to other ERs, chances are it won’t be a quick fix for us either. Our job is to
rule out bad things and get you the right follow up, often with your regular
doctor. Plus, if we start a lab workup or want to order tests, your doctor
won’t always be able to follow up on the results (and chances are we won’t
either, since many of the labs and imaging studies come back once our shift is
over). Additionally, if you don’t get better in two days and decide to come
back, you will be seen by someone different, who will have no idea how you
looked the first time, may have a totally different approach, or may disagree
with what has already been done. It’s a lot easier to solve long-term issues
with a long-term plan—namely, your own doctor who can see you through the
illness and follow up on what they recommend.
3) We
are an URGENT care. We are not an “I just had a quick question” or “I didn’t
want to make an appointment with his doctor” care. The following are all real
complaints that have come in to our Urgent Care or ERs—ear pain for 20 minutes
(no meds given at home), band-aid stuck to leg, need a refill on Prevacid
(which is now over the counter, by the way), the child felt warm, grandma said
he needed to be seen, was exposed to someone with a sore throat but doesn’t
have any symptoms. There are nurse lines for these sorts of things. We are
always happy to offer reassurance, but please don’t expect me to rush in when I
have other rooms filled with asthmatics, broken bones, migraines, seizures,
pneumonia, partially amputated fingers, or other things more…urgent. It’s
always the people who don’t really need to be there that balk at the wait
times. Imagine waiting until your pediatrician’s office opened. In two whole
hours.
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