Be safe.
On this, the first long three day weekend of the summer, there are many who hear this message. From parents, teachers, coaches, friends, and city officials, the Be Safe message is frequent this Memorial Day weekend.
Unfortunately, after a long winter and too many days at work, this is the weekend when many people will not follow this advice as closely as they should. For many, this will be the weekend that they exercise too long, work too hard, party too much. As a result, places that offer urgent care and clinics will be busy. They will be busy treating patients with heat exhaustion from people who extended their run a little too long; patients with breathing difficulties as they battle allergies from a long day working in the yard; patients with sprained ankles or broken bones who felt a little too invincible on the sand volleyball court after a few too many drinks.
In fact, on this weekend when many of us are planning for lots of fun and activities, there are urgent care and clinics across the nation who are making sure that they are well staffed for this holiday weekend.
Consider some of these facts and figures about the many services and conveniences that walk in clinics and after hours pediatrics offer to Americans on this, and every other weekend, of the summer:
- 92% of urgent care centers maintained wait times of 30 minutes or less in 2015, according to the Urgent Care Association of America’s 2016 Benchmarking Report.
- 70% of emergency room visits involving patients with consumer-sponsored insurance coverage are for preventable or non-emergency conditions.
- In the 2015 fiscal year, urgent care centers reported treating an average of 12,000 patients.
- This means that in 2015 these 12,000 patients represented an average of three patient care visits every hour, or 32 visits every day.
- 27% of U.S. patients reported in 2016 indicated that they had visited an urgent care center in the last two years.
Even when you are trying your best to be safe, accidents happen. When they do, it is in your best interest to find a treatment at a place where the care is reliable, convenient, and affordable.
