Patient Visits Spike at Minnesota 24-Hour Urgent Care
11/17/2008
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — For the first 10 months in 2008, the 24-hour Urgent Care at the Apple Valley Medical Center saw 33,000 patient visits, up 6.1 percent from the same period in 2007. For the full year of 2007, approximately 37,000 patient visits were recorded.
The center has offered 24-hour Urgent Care since it opened in 1974.
"We believe individuals are using urgent care facilities more often because the wait time and cost are generally less than at an emergency department," said David Maas, MD, medical director of the center’s urgent care. "Without urgent care, patients must wait for an appointment with their primary care physician or make an expensive visit to a hospital emergency room to wait sometimes hours before being seen."
A doctor licensed in advanced-cardiac life support (ACLS) is on duty at the urgent care 24 hours a day. Registered nurses also have ACLS certification; some with pediatric advanced life support and trauma core certification. The urgent care offers a selection of diagnostic and therapeutic services, including 24-hour X-ray, laboratory testing and procedure rooms for lacerations and fractures. Access to an on-site pharmacy is available during extended hours Monday through Saturday.
"In a March 2008 time study, we calculated our average patient time from door to door at one hour, including peak times," Maas said. "We have a policy that if the patient wait time hits one hour, we call in the 'on call' physician."
According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 40 percent of visits to hospital emergency departments are for non-emergencies, creating average wait times of 3.2 hours.
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