Though some may see them as separate from primary care clinics and family doctors, urgent care clinics play a vital role in the world of preventive health care. In addition to providing a rapid, convenient care option outside of normal office hours, urgent care helps prevent poor health outcomes.
Oxford Urgent Care offers convenient, excellent care for patients of all ages in Oxford, MS. Our experienced providers provide care for a wide variety of health concerns and injuries.
What Is Preventive Care?
Preventive care is simply medical care that promotes wellness and prevents illness. A variety of medical services fall under the umbrella of preventive health. These include immunizations, health screenings, wellness checks, and health education.
You may be surprised to know that urgent care plays an important role in preventive health care. Let’s explore the ways urgent care can help promote and maintain your wellness. Oxford Urgent Care in Oxford, MS, provides many preventive care services along with short wait times and convenient walk-in visits.
What Preventive Services Does Urgent Care Provide?
Immunizations
Immunizations help with disease prevention in health care. Vaccines can prevent an illness entirely or minimize severity if you do contract it. Getting a flu shot, for example, can prevent a severe case of the flu.
Diagnostic Tests
Diagnostic testing can detect health problems, enabling providers to begin treatment. This can prevent an illness or condition from progressing or causing complications. For example, you may visit urgent care for a urinary tract infection and have a urinalysis done. The results enable your urgent care provider to diagnose your condition and order the proper treatment and may provide other information about your urinary and kidney health that can be relayed to your primary care provider.
Onsite diagnostic testing services include blood and urine testing, flu tests, COVID-19 testing, blood glucose tests, X-rays, and EKGs.
Health Guidance
You may or may not know that health care providers are also teachers! Like other health care professionals, urgent care providers educate people about their illness, treatment, medication, and how to promote a healthy lifestyle. The more you know, the better you can partner with your provider in improving your health.
Urgent care providers care for people of all ages and are trained and experienced in treating a broad range of health conditions. This gives them a unique ability to provide helpful health guidance during your visit. You will also receive information about how to ensure a complete recovery after you return home and what follow-up care you may need. These are all important aspects of preventive health care.
Preventing Worsening Issues
When you visit urgent care, your provider can often diagnose and treat a health condition before it worsens and leads to dangerous complications. For instance, an untreated wound could become infected, resulting in a tissue infection. This could progress to sepsis, a dangerous condition requiring hospitalization and emergent treatment.
Urgent care can play an essential role in catching issues before they progress, preventing potentially serious health outcomes for you.
Continuity With Other Providers
Ensuring that details about your health (including your medication regimen, lab results, and chronic condition management) don’t fall through the cracks is essential in good preventive care. Urgent care providers can advise you on follow-up care and help to ensure information about your illness and visit can get to your primary care provider or specialist, ensuring continuity of care.
Preventive Care in Oxford, MS
Oxford Urgent Care offers many preventive care services, from treatment for many health concerns to physical exams for school and work. Our providers are ready to care for you and your family seven days a week. No appointment is necessary—we offer walk-in visits and shorter wait times. Visit us today!