breathing, chest pain, uncontrollable bleeding, severe pain, or possible heart attack or stroke to call 911 or go directly to the emergency department.“ If someone presents to the urgent care center because they are not aware of the severity of the problem, we will still take care of them,” Dr. Apollon says,“ and transfer them to the hospital after stabilizing them as much as possible.”
Gail Callaway, M. D., a primary care physician at Smithsburg Family Medical Center, recommends that patients considering a visit to urgent care during regular office hours should call their primary care doctor first if they’ re in doubt.“ Sometimes we can do things in the office and people don’ t realize that we can, for instance, do stitches for small cuts,” Dr. Callaway says.“ If you think you broke a bone, sometimes we’ ll send people directly to urgent care so they can get an X-ray.” Some primary care practices, like Smithsburg, keep a certain number of appointments open to accommodate urgent appointments. But, sometimes an urgent care center is closer, Dr. Callaway says, and more convenient for a patient.“ That’ s the important thing— that the patients are taken care of.”
PARTNERS IN CARE In the larger picture of healthcare, urgent care centers play an important role for patients and in the system as a whole. Urgent care is a convenient alternative when patients are unable to schedule a regular doctor’ s appointment, and the UCAOA’ s 2012 white paper,“ The Case for Urgent Care,” points out that, nationwide, just over 27 percent of visits to hospital emergency departments are for non-emergencies. Having urgent care centers to treat non-life-threatening ailments means“ emergency department wait times are decreased, and it enables the ED providers to focus their attention on treating severe illnesses and injuries, like chest pain, difficulty breathing, and uncontrolled bleeding,” Nikki says. As Dr. Apollon sums up,“ certain things a hospital takes care of better than we do, but there are certain things that we can expedite through urgent care … We see ourselves as partners with primary care physicians, specialists and hospitals in meeting this need.” §
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Hagerstown: The Best of Life in Washington County & Beyond March / April 2013 29