One of the most under-appreciated industries in the United States is that of the medical industry. While this may seem funny to hear, it is actually quite true. People often overlook the importance of the medical industry and how it helps protect their vital everyday health.
Now, let us not get carried away here, there is no question that people value the emergency centers and family urgent care centers, but I do not think that enough people truly value what they do. The medical industry has morphed itself to help accommodate the needs of people with the advent of the 24 hour urgent care location. Here is what you need to know about family medicine, urgent care clinics, and emergency centers.
So many Americans rely on the 24-hour access to health care that is provided by emergency departments. As a matter of fact, the number of after-dark visits have increased by nearly 22% over the past decade which is amazing. This means more people than ever are going to seek help at all hours of the day for their medical needs.
According to the Urgent Care Association of America, in the year of 2011, the average urgent center treated 342 patients every single work. Also, keep in mind that the average emergency center experienced an increase of 28 additional patients each month as well. This just goes to show how emergency centers and similar facilities are becoming more and more popular as time goes on.
Right now in the United States, there are just about 9,300 walk-in urgent care centers and nearly 100 new clinics open every single year. In 2009, there were fewer medical school seniors selecting Family Medicine as their specialty as opposed to 2008, because many saw the change in the medical industry coming. There are 110 million visits to emergency centers annually in the United States as well.
On average, emergency centers will contain just about seven treatment rooms. Just about 60% of all urgent care centers have a wait time that is less than 15 minutes for someone to see a physician and just about 65% of all emergency centers have a physician on staff at all times. The urgent care center market is highly broken up and most operators own less than three centers which helps to keep these facilities honest.
According to the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine, the average patient-per-hour ratio for physicians working at emergency centers is 4.5 patients per hour. Just about 97% of all urgent care clinics are open to patients every day of the week. Just about half of all emergency centers are owned by either one physician or a group of physicians.
A private study was conducted by Milliman that revealed nearly 65% of all emergency room visits could have been treated in an urgent care clinic which is very much less costly than the latter. So many people will visit an emergency room not only to wait for treatment but to be also billed more than they would visit the urgent care. As a matter of fact, many people believe that emergency rooms are double the cost of an emergency center visit.
According to projections by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the United States will be short more than 90,000 physicians by 2020 and nearly 130,000 physicians by the year of 205. Keep in mind that there are just about 20,000 physicians working in the field of Urgent Care Medicine right now and that number continues to grow. This represents the Urgent Care profession to be one of the fastest growing medical fields right now.
In Conclusion
As previously mentioned, the medical industry is so important to the public of the United States. Even statistical projection is showing that this is true. Projections show that by the year 2025, the United States will likely need just about 52,000 more primary care physicians in order to meet the country’s health care needs. If you hesitated before when pondering if you should visit emergency centers or not, then make the right decision. Go to your local emergency center and allow them to give you top level treatment.
