With so many Americans on the go these days, they’re looking for convenience any way they can get it. From being able to order just about anything on Amazon, to being able to pay bills online to being able order just about any kind of food via thru or via a delivery service, life has become all about convenience for Americans. If there’s any way to make life easier, Americans are all about it.
The same thing is true when it comes to health care. When Americans are sick and not feeling well, they want convenient medical care. When they wake up on a Saturday or on a weekday morning, coughing and sneezing or with a headache or a fever, they want convenient medical care as soon as they can get it.
So how can Americans get convenient medical care? Two things have made that possible now more than ever: urgent care facilities (including 24 hour urgent care) and telemedicine.
Urgent care clinics offer a way for patients to get convenient medical care at affordable prices. As it stands, the list of treatment your local urgent care offers continues to grow by the day. If you’re looking for relief from colds and the flu, sprains and strains, dizziness, back pain and even treatment options for STDs, urgent cares are the place to go for on-demand care. Urgent care clinics are open later and for more days a week than the average doctor’s office.
They’re more cost effective too. Urgent cares offer convenient medical care and on-demand care by offering treatments at affordable prices as well as price transparency, whereby patients can take a look at a list of how much different treatment options before receiving any medical aid. In this way, Americans can get things like Z-packs and flu shots very easily and they’ll get in to see the doctor much faster than they would in the ER or with a primary care doctor.
The other method of convenience is telemedicine, where patients can visit with a virtual doctor or online doctor via computer. It may sound strange, but studies have indicated that 52% of people are willing to use virtual healthcare to see their provider. This shows that Americans are looking for convenient medical care and are open to using technology to make it happen.
Let’s be honest, doctors these days get swamped with patients. The average physician in the United States gets more than 3,500 visits a year and specialists get more than 2,500. That means doctors are only spending about 15 minutes with each patient they see; hardly enough time for some patients with chronic medical issues.
Telemedicine offers patients more flexibility with their time and money. With telemedicine, patients don’t have to spend time waiting in doctor’s offices or having to rearrange their busy schedules to try and make it into a doctor’s office. Telemedicine also help patients stay healthy believe it or not. Rather than sitting in a doctor’s office among people who care constantly coughing and sneezing, patients can visit with a doctor from the comforts of their own home and stay healthy since they’re not exposed to other folks’ germs.
Telemedicine also gives patients a chance to visit with specialists. This is great for patients especially if they are dealing with medical issues of a sensitive nature. Rather than having to trek to the ER or into a doctor’s office, patients can have a private conversation with a specialist. Another benefit of telemedicine is patients can get easy access to on-demand care after meeting with doctors online, since doctors can confer with your insurance company to get you the care you need.
If you’re dealing with a serious medical issue, don’t hesitate to go to the emergency room. You don’t want to roll the dice when it comes to your health. But for everyday medical issues, both urgent care clinics and telemedicine how made it more convenient than ever for Americans to get the medical care they need.
