Raising healthcare costs, insurance copayments, and overcrowded, overtaxed, and over extended emergency rooms and hospitals, have led to the creation of the approximately 9,300 urgent care centers in the United States today. Since their inception, urgent care centers have not only grown 6.3 percent annually (an estimated 3 million patients visit an urgent care center each week) but the price of an urgent care Portland visit can be less than half that of an emergency room visit. In fact, a typical visit to an urgent care beaverton center is comparable in price to a doctors office visit.
The difference between a doctor portland in a hospital and a doctor in an urgent care center can be minimal, if at all. Nearly 70 percent of all physicians at urgent care centers are board certified family practice or emergency medicine doctors. That is why the range of services at urgent care centers have expanded to include things like STD testing Portland.
Not all injuries warrant a trip to the emergency room. A sprain, fracture, upper respiratory infection, or gastrointestinal issue can most often be treated in an urgent care center. Also, in the fortunate world of human reproduction, there can be the unfortunate outcome of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Most often, STD testing Portland, can be done in an urgent care center, too. If STD testing Portland is done in an urgent care center, chances are that the STD testing Portland can be successfully treated there, too.
Keep in mind, though, that not all STD testing Portland acute injuries or illnesses are the same. Some injuries, illnesses, or STD testing Portland do require an emergency room visit. And there have been instances of people visiting an urgent care Portland Oregon center and then being forwarded on to an emergency room. However, a 2010 study found that almost 20 percent of hospital emergency room visits could have been treated, instead, at an urgent care center. This staggering percentage could potentially save $4.4 billion annually in healthcare costs.
As opposed to many private practice office hours, urgent care hours of operation are often more flexible. Urgent care centers can also be open during evenings and weekends, in addition to regular working hours.