Running as a form of exercise is a great way to maintain a healthy weight and keep your cardiovascular system in great shape. Unfortunately, running can be hard on your body- especially your shins, knees, and ankles. If you are someone who runs quite often, you may eventually encounter a running injury. Instead of going to an emergency room if this injury occurs, you should consider visiting an urgent care center instead.

Why Visit An Urgent Care Clinic For Your Running Injury

If you have an injury while running, you will probably want to seek out medical attention right away. However, a visit to the emergency room can result in an extremely long wait time. Since your injury won’t be deemed life-threatening (more than likely) your wait time could also take even longer if patients who have life-threatening medical issues continue to enter the emergency room. More than likely, you’ll continue to be moved back in line.

The wait time alone is a reason to attend an urgent care center instead. Since urgent care centers mainly have walk-in appointments, you will not need to worry about if you’ll be able to get in or not. Additionally, since urgent care centers do not take any patients that are life-threatening, your position in the queue will remain the same. You will not be moved back in the line based on the amount of other patients that attend the center.

Urgent care centers can also be more beneficial than waiting to gain an appointment with your normal physician. Since urgent care clinics take walk-in appointments, the doctors at the urgent care should be able to see you relatively quickly. Many urgent care centers can also provide a wider range of services than your regular doctor may be able to. As urgent care centers are intended to be the level right below the emergency room, they are meant to handle medical issues that require treatment within a 24-hour time period.

The Cost Of Urgent Care Centers
Before attending an urgent care center, it is important to check that the specific center you are considering going to takes your insurance. Most urgent care clinics work with the major insurance providers, but this is certainly something you should call ahead about. If a clinic does take your insurance policy, then you will usually only have to pay the copay amount for your appointment. Sometimes the amount paid can also depend on the treatment required though.

A trip to an urgent care center tends to cost far less than a trip to an emergency room since urgent care clinics do tend to be private and only take patients who have an insurance policy. Emergency rooms on the other hand will treat everyone, but this can make the cost of your treatment be higher.

The above are important things to consider when you are debating about the kind of medical treatment you may need for your running injury. If you have more questions about the types of services that an urgent care center can provide, then check out this website.