3 Important Times To Take Your Child To An Urgent Care Center
Posted on: 22 April 2017
Are you the parent of one or more children? Are you worried about how you'll be able to pay for any illnesses or injuries that your children get? Many people simply take their children to the emergency room but this can be expensive if you have no insurance or are under-insured. Going to see your child's pediatrician can be less expensive but it may be impossible to get an appointment for several days or weeks. Fortunately, there is a third option. Urgent care centers are equipped to handle many different illnesses and injuries quickly and at a lower cost than an emergency room visit. Some of the things that you can visit an urgent care center for include:
Possible broken bones: If your child has a compound fracture, an obviously broken bone, you should certainly take him or her to the emergency room so that they can set it as soon as possible. However, if you're not sure if your child has a fracture or just a sprain, visiting your nearest urgent care center can be a great alternative. Instead of waiting for hours behind true emergencies, such as heart attacks, they'll be able to get you in and process the X-rays in relatively no time at all.
Vaccine booster shots: Even minor injuries can be in need of medical attention. If it's been about a decade since your child's last tetanus shot, you should have him or her get a booster shot as soon as possible. Contrary to what you may have heard, tetanus can infect a person through even a relatively small cut or scratch. If you have a high school student who plays sports, you may want to consider taking him or her to an urgent care center to get a tetanus booster if he or she gets a skinned knee or some other injury that is contaminated with dirt.
Ear infections: Ear infections are an extremely common childhood illness. When your child has an ear infection, you probably don't want to wait days for your pediatrician to have an open appointment. You also probably don't want to have to visit an emergency room simply to get a prescription for necessary antibiotics. Fortunately, an urgent care center will be able to see you and your child quickly and will be able to write the prescription that he or she needs. If he or she is in need of more than just antibiotics, the doctor or nurse practitioner who sees you and your child will be able to tell you what else you'll need to do for your child.
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