Urgent care centers are a vital part of the American healthcare system. If you don’t have a doctor or your normal doctor is busy and cannot see you for weeks or months, urgent care centers fill the gap. They’re also handy when you need to see a doctor outside of normal office hours or have an issue that’s not severe enough to go to the emergency room.
While urgent care is helpful in many situations, it’s a quick visit and you’re done. It doesn’t go into comprehensive diagnostics and long-term images of your health over the decades. It’s best when used in addition to regular check-ups rather than quick checks to uncover if you have the flu or COVID.
Once you’ve been to urgent care, you must listen to the doctor’s advice. Make sure you go for follow-up care. Don’t put it off or decide to skip it. Failure to follow a doctor’s orders can lead to complications that put your health at risk.
Explore the Benefits of Follow-Up Care
There are multiple benefits to follow-up care with a primary care physician. If you don’t have a PCP, you should tell an urgent care doctor that and make suitable arrangements to ensure you don’t miss out on tests, exams, and visits that ensure you’ve healed or recovered properly.
Gain Early Detection of Complications
One aspect where follow-up care is helpful is that it can catch complications in the early stages. Suppose you had the flu and saw an urgent care doctor as you worried it was worsening. That doctor noticed your blood pressure was alarmingly high. You’ve caught something that could have become serious, and now you can seek treatment for high blood pressure.
If you cut your hand while cooking dinner and had to get stitches, follow-up care can make sure that the cut healed correctly and that there’s no damage to the nerves. It can also ensure you do not have any underlying infection.
Create Comprehensive Plans for Disease Management
Follow-up care is a good time to come up with a comprehensive plan to improve your health or better manage a chronic health condition. Go back to the example of follow-up care helping with high blood pressure management. You can work with a primary care doctor to adjust your diet, take any necessary medications, and work on ways to lower stress.
Suppose you went to urgent care because you’ve been feeling exhausted lately, even waking up tired. You learn that you have anemia and are given iron pills and a diet to follow. Follow-up care ensures that the iron pills you were prescribed have helped. It can also help start to explore what caused your anemia.
Discuss Any Concerns
When you see a doctor to make sure you’re recovering well, it’s a good time to discuss concerns. Suppose you had an ear infection after swimming in the lake, the medications helped, but you cannot hear much in that ear now. Mention that and see if there’s a blockage.
Make Medication Adjustments
During your urgent care visit for strep throat, your doctor prescribed an antibiotic. It’s been several days, and you feel worse rather than better. Follow-up visits are helpful in that dosages or medication types can be changed if something isn’t working well.
Gain Peace of Mind
Being ill or injured is stressful. You had the flu and three weeks later, you still aren’t back to your normal self. You could well be worried that you’re not healing as well as expected. A follow-up visit gives you peace of mind that you’ve done everything right and that you just need more time to fully heal.
What Happens When You Skip Follow-Up Care?
If you skip follow-up care, all of the benefits listed above are lost. You might have a chronic health condition that worsens. You could end up with a severe infection that puts your life at risk. These examples paint a better picture of the value of follow-up care.
A man in Wales was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told to return for additional PSA testing after starting hormone treatment. He didn’t like how the medication made him feel and stopped taking it. When the doctor’s office lost the request for a follow-up appointment, the man didn’t call to ask when his appointment was. A year passed before his doctor put in an urgent referral for a PSA blood test, but it was too late. He died from cancer a month later.
Many patients cite the cost of health care as a reason to skip follow-up appointments. If cost is a factor, don’t let that keep you from getting the healthcare treatments you need. Urgent care facilities cost less than hospital visits. Talk to the office about your financial worries. You might find you’re worrying for nothing.
How Do You Ensure Your Follow-Up Care Visit Covers Everything?
If you can, make follow-up appointments as soon as you know when and how many you’ll need. Don’t miss these appointments. They’re the best way to ensure you’ve healed properly and that there’s no worsening infection. If you have stitches, you may need them removed.
The best way to ensure that your follow-up care covers everything is by being honest. Bring any notes from the doctor you saw at an urgent care clinic. Bring the bottles for any prescriptions you were given or take a photo for your doctor to look at.
Keep track of any pain, discomfort, or concerns you’ve had as you’ve healed or recovered. If you are still having to rely on over-the-counter pain medications for a sprained ankle weeks later, tell your doctor. It may have been a worse sprain than initially believed, or it might not have healed correctly.
Ask questions if you have any. No question is too minor. If it’s been a question you have floating around your mind, ask it. If you worry about the health issue or infection returning, ask if there are ways to avoid a recurrence.
What If You Don’t Have a Primary Care Physician for Follow-Up Care?
The California Health Care Foundation conducted a survey in 2021 asking adults about their health, which included access to a regular primary care provider (PCP). Thirteen percent of those surveyed admitted they do not have a regular PCP. In Fresno County, 62% of the residents are in a town or city with a shortage of primary care providers.
When you make an appointment to see a doctor at Premium Urgent Care, make sure you discuss follow-up care. If you don’t have a PCP, be honest. We’ll ensure you have access to a doctor for follow-up tests and check-ups, and we can offer guidance on finding a PCP for future healthcare needs.