When you talk about “access,” I think you’ve diplomatically sidestepped the issue of the quality of care being provided at the typical urgent care clinic, which in my family’s and friends’ experience is often poor. You brought a level of experience and training to the situation that is far beyond that of the “provider” seen at most urgent care clinics.
I am an exception, but that is because my private internist is part of my local quartenary level medical center’s system, and their express care clinic (same day appointments 7 days a week) is staffed by full-time faculty physicians (sometimes full profs) from one of the academic primary care departments. Fantastic doctors.
A couple of times recently, I had a situation where a trip to the ED would have been reasonable, in fact, in both cases, they debated whether to send me to their ED down the street for specialist care. But they were able to do a quick phone consult with the specialist on call, develop a plan and get me into their specialist’s clinic for follow-up 48 hours later (which would normally take months as a new patient). They had access to all of my charts, as did my internist at my physical 2 months later to be able to check on the status of the problem. Completely seamless care of literally the highest quality level medical care available on the planet (paid for by my insurance). I suspect your system has a very similar setup.
But that’s incredibly far from the reality for most people, who see a random provider at an urgent care factory with no follow-up, paid for by cash.
I think there might be an interesting study to be done to somehow look at what happens at ED visits following outside medical care by either the patient’s regular physician or urgent care. E.g., evaluate admissions for pneumonia between the two groups. Perhaps politically unpopular, though.
When you talk about “access,” I think you’ve diplomatically sidestepped the issue of the quality of care being provided at the typical urgent care clinic, which in my family’s and friends’ experience is often poor. You brought a level of experience and training to the situation that is far beyond that of the “provider” seen at most urgent care clinics.
I am an exception, but that is because my private internist is part of my local quartenary level medical center’s system, and their express care clinic (same day appointments 7 days a week) is staffed by full-time faculty physicians (sometimes full profs) from one of the academic primary care departments. Fantastic doctors.
A couple of times recently, I had a situation where a trip to the ED would have been reasonable, in fact, in both cases, they debated whether to send me to their ED down the street for specialist care. But they were able to do a quick phone consult with the specialist on call, develop a plan and get me into their specialist’s clinic for follow-up 48 hours later (which would normally take months as a new patient). They had access to all of my charts, as did my internist at my physical 2 months later to be able to check on the status of the problem. Completely seamless care of literally the highest quality level medical care available on the planet (paid for by my insurance). I suspect your system has a very similar setup.
But that’s incredibly far from the reality for most people, who see a random provider at an urgent care factory with no follow-up, paid for by cash.
I think there might be an interesting study to be done to somehow look at what happens at ED visits following outside medical care by either the patient’s regular physician or urgent care. E.g., evaluate admissions for pneumonia between the two groups. Perhaps politically unpopular, though.