Visiting an urgent care center is effective for addressing a wide range of health issues that you may be dealing with. Cuts, suspected broken bones, and other injuries can all warrant a trip to urgent care instead of the hospital's emergency room. It's easy to be emotionally upset when you walk into the waiting room, and this may prompt you to act in a manner that you later regret — and that gets your visit off on the wrong foot with the facility's health practitioners. As much as it might occasionally be tempting, here are three things that you shouldn't do while you wait for urgent care.
Complain About The Wait Time
When you visit an urgent care center, you'll sometimes see a doctor within minutes of arriving. At other times, you may face a wait until you get the care you need. Several factors, including the number of other patients in the center and the specific nature of your injury, play a role in your wait time. Don't approach the counter to complain about how long you've been waiting. Instead, remember that no one has forgotten you and that you're in a queue of other patients. Complaining will not get you the care you need any quicker.
Say That Your Issue Is More Serious Than Someone Else's
It can be a little frustrating to see patients who have arrived after you get taken out of the waiting room to receive care, and this can prompt you to begin to evaluate another patient's apparent issue versus your own. It's easy to feel as though your issue is more serious, and thus feel as though someone receiving care ahead of you is an injustice. Remember, though, that you're not a health professional — the center's administrators have a firm grasp on the severity of each patient's health situation and are treating people accordingly.
Ask Another Patient If You Can Go First
As you wait, you may strike up conversations with other patients. In doing so, you may ask why another patient is visiting the urgent care center — and then assess whether his or her issue is less serious than yours. If you make this call, you may ask the person if you can go ahead of him or her. In other words, when the patient gets called, he or she would allow you to go. Not only is making this assumption wrong, but you won't get past the front desk to receive care. Wait you turn and you'll be getting the care you need soon enough.
For more information, contact establishments like Alaska Urgent Care LLC.
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