How Urgent Care Centers Are Adapting To Covid-19

by Patrick Ward Walk in Urgent Care Clinic

As the corona virus spreads, urgent care centers are figuring out how to handle the high number of Covid-19 cases.

For long, after hours urgent care centers have pitched themselves as a low cost and viable alternative to the hospital, for everything from a headache or ear infection to a minor fracture.

Now Covid-19 is putting them to test.

Are all urgent care centers ready?

Frankly, all may not be yet.

Some clinics are better prepared because they are affiliated with major health hospitals.

Such clinics are capable of sending hundreds of samples to be tested for corona virus.

To prevent patients from infecting others, urgent care Washington DC gets information from patients ahead of time to know if they have fever, shortness of breath, or fever.

We must keep in mind that urgent care centers are in the frontline of healthcare.

But such services usually do not extend to highly infectious conditions like TB and measles that require higher levels of protective gear and isolated rooms to handle infections.

The CDC has stipulated that doctors must use a higher level of protection for corona virus than they use for patients with flu.

Protective masks are adequate for other infectious cases, but for Covid-19, you need respirators and other protective gear.

Some modifications to the guidelines have been made.

To prevent asymptomatic and symptomatic transmission, source control is essential. Everyone entering an urgent care facility must wear a cloth face covering. A face mask may also be used.

Each person entering is screened for fever and symptoms of corona virus.

Nowadays, people with anxiety that they have corona virus are showing up at after hours urgent care.

Even if they are suffering from simple fever or cold, they are worried the condition might be something more.

Such people wanting to visit the urgent care centers are told to fill out a form with details such as if they have certain symptoms, if they have recently travelled abroad, or have been in contact with people who have been to countries where Covid-19 is widespread.

The patients are requested to wait in their cars till they are called in.

Once in, the urgent care staff covered in protective gear gives the patient a flu test. If found negative, she/he is examined and provided with appropriate care.

If a clinic is not equipped to test patients for corona virus, the doctor will speak with the patients and figure out if they are likely to have Covid-19. If corona virus is suspected, the patient is sent to a hospital or a Covid-19 testing center.

A video telemedicine platform for primary care doctors, urgent care and frontline providers can help both the patients and health care providers stay safe.

If a region is highly impacted by Covid-19, a shift to telemedicine can exponentially increase virtual visits.

Such initiatives will help in delay and prevention of corona virus transmission.