Urgent care centers aim to fill health need

By AMANDA CUDA/Connecticut Post/March 16, 2014

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) Susan Maldonado doesnt have time to spend all day in a crowded doctors office or emergency room.

She works full time and goes to school full time, so her time is at a premium. But the Bridgeport resident is sick, and has been for a while, with symptoms that include a high fever.

Looking for some relief, she went to the new Doctors Express Urgent Care clinic on Boston Avenue in Bridgeport, which opened March 3.

For many people, urgent care clinics provide a lower-cost, more accessible alternative to doctors offices and hospital emergency rooms. Theyre typically open longer hours than most doctors offices, and are open on weekends.

Maldonado said that kind of convenience is part of why she picked the Boston Avenue clinic. Its also a two-minute drive from her home and she found the atmosphere of the office, which sits in a strip mall near the Boston Avenue Burger King, a more pleasant environment than most doctors offices.

Its not crowded, Maldonado said. The people arent rude. Its nice.

It seems that others share her interest in convenient health care, as urgent care centers have been popping up at a brisk rate in recent years. According to the American Academy of Urgent Care, the number of these walk-in, stand-alone urgent care facilities has increased from 8,000 to 9,300 within the past five years, and about 50 to 100 new clinics open every year.

These clinics provide a variety of medical services, from treating colds and the flu, to setting broken bones to conducting school- or employer-mandated physicals. Some say the clinics are needed in todays health care landscape, as they help keep uninsured and underinsured people from seeking costly care in the emergency room.

The hospitals are full of people who dont really need (emergency room) care, said Yvonne Lederer, market director for the Doctors Express Bridgeport sites.

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Urgent care centers aim to fill health need