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Urgent Care Facilities Case Study

Urgent Care Facilities The type of facility chosen is the Urgent Care facility, a relatively new but rapidly growing aspect of the U.S. Health care system. Research shows that Urgent Care provides relatively inexpensive ambulatory care for certain types of medical issues. The savings inherent in using Urgent Care, plus its increasing ability to treat patients of all types and ages have contributed to its increasingly widespread use.

The types of services that are provided at this facility, including a description of both inpatient and outpatient services

Urgent Care facilities are relatively young in the U.S. health care industry, first appearing approximately 40 years ago in response to the need for less expensive "urgent" care that does not rise to the level of "emergency" and/or "inpatient care." Urgent Care facilities do not provide inpatient care; rather, they provide outpatient care of "urgent medical issues." The Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a network of Urgent Care facilities, carefully distinguishes between an "emergency," which can threaten life or cause impairment, and an "urgent medical issue," which requires care within 24 hours, such an accident or fall, sprains, fractures, back problems, breathing difficulties, abdominal pain, cuts that require stitches, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, sore throat, coughs, asthma that is not severe (Palo Alto Medical Foundation, 2012).

According...

The AAUCM also points to the fact that wait times in Urgent Care facilities tend to be shorter than the hours-long wait in a hospital emergency room (American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine, 2012). In fact, two urgent care facilities in San Bernardino, CA that received awards from the AAUCM reports, "On average, patients see a health care professional within 4.4 minutes of walking into the door of either site" (Steinberg, 2012).
The types of patients that receive care at this facility.

According to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, their networked Urgent Care facilities treat patient of all ages and types, so long as the medical issue is an "urgent medical issue" (Palo Alto Medical Foundation, 2012).

Provide a minimum of two examples of how this facility has responded to changing trends in healthcare.

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation is responding to the changing trends in health care in at least two ways. First, many patients of all ages and types are being guided toward Urgent Care by managed health care organizations due to significant cost savings;…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine. (2012). Definition of urgent care medicine. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from AAUCM.org Web site: http://aaucm.org/About/UrgentCare/default.aspx

Palo Alto Medical Foundation. (2012). The urgent care doctors. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from PAMF.org Web site: http://www.pamf.org/urgentcare/team/

Palo Alto Medical Foundation. (2012). What is urgent care? | When to use urgent care. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from PAMF.org Weg site: http://www.pamf.org/urgentcare/whentouse/

Steinberg, J. (2012, April 20). Hospital's urgent care centers win accolades. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from ERMS.tourolib.org Web site: https://erms.tourolib.org/url/http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2639423111&sid=11&Fmt=3&clientId=14844&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Urgent Care News. (2011, June). Blue Cross of GA uses Google maps to encourage use of urgent care. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from Urgentcarenews.com Web site: http://www.urgentcarenews.com/June2011/bcbs.php
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