Urgent Care vs. Primary Care

By yesterday my daughter had become quite ill and decided she needed to go to Urgent Care because she couldn't handle another night of no sleep and not being able to breathe. So, the family drove to the nearest Urgent Care Clinic (she couldn't get in to her doctor soon enough) and were told it would be about 2 hours before they could see her. So, they drove home and I took her back around 2 hours later since the baby was already in bed.

First of all, the number of people who use Urgent Care, not to mention Emergency, as their primary care provider blows my mind. There were some true urgencies in the room like a tow-headed little boy with bright red cheeks who was crying because it hurt so bad and my daughter. But mostly there were low-income people in the room who don't have primary care doctors and use these facilities for all their aches and pains.

If you think about it, this serves them similarly to a national health care system because they simply have to wait their turn for service. And I have to say the service that is provided is pretty cookie cutter, i.e. everyone gets the same antibiotic, the same inhaler, etc. I may be oversimplifying somewhat but I don't think I am completely.

The other thing is if you ever want to get sick, this is the place for you. The perfect atmosphere of hacking, coughing, sneezing, blowing of noses, it's all there in stereo, all ages, all sizes and all genders (yes I meant to say it that way).

I don't really know where I'm going with this other than to say that this is one of my top ten places to avoid unless of course I need immediate health care assistance. Then I'll be in there waiting with every other sad individual who has hours to spend waiting for the cookie cutter to be applied to me.

Germs away!