A choice many face: Where to go for your care

It is a choice many of you face when con­fronted with an ill­ness or injury. Where do you go for care — your doctor’s office, an urgent care cen­ter or the hos­pi­tal emer­gency department?

While Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal and Ohio­Health offer a vari­ety of treat­ment options, choos­ing the most appro­pri­ate facil­ity helps ensure the best pos­si­ble care.

Hos­pi­tal emer­gency rooms often see patients suf­fer­ing from rel­a­tively benign ill­nesses and injuries because many do not real­ize that other treat­ment options are avail­able. And now we have another new deliv­ery model — the “retail clinic” located in your phar­macy or gro­cery or depart­ment store. Here’s a review of your choices and the part each one plays on the health­care continuum.

Pri­mary Care Provider

Your doc­tor is the best place for the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of any com­mon ill­ness or injury that is not a life-threatening emer­gency. The biggest advan­tage your doc­tor has over other providers is a thor­ough knowl­edge of your med­ical his­tory, includ­ing the pro­ce­dures you’ve had and the med­ica­tions you are taking.

Con­di­tions typ­i­cally treated in a physician’s office are colds, flu, sore throats, res­pi­ra­tory infec­tions, sinusi­tis, ear aches, rashes, insect bites, sim­ple cuts, sprains, strains and removal of super­fi­cial objects in the eyes.

Your doctor’s office is the place to go for chronic dis­ease man­age­ment, rou­tine check-ups, and school, team or employ­ment physicals.

Urgent Care

Con­di­tions typ­i­cally treated in your doctor’s office also can be treated at Urgent Care when your doc­tor is not avail­able. Ohio­Health Urgent Care cen­ters keep evening and week­end hours and always have a licensed physi­cian on site, pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive, qual­ity care on a walk-in basis.

Urgent Care treats non-life-threatening prob­lems such as infec­tions, aches, pains, sim­ple cuts and burns and eye injuries that require imme­di­ate med­ical atten­tion. It is designed for tem­po­rary med­ical assis­tance and not intended to be a pri­mary care provider.

A visit to any Ohio­Health Urgent Care cen­ters con­nects you to the entire Ohio­Health system.

Emer­gency Department

While emer­gency depart­ments can treat any ill­ness or injury, they are intended to treat con­di­tions with severe symp­toms that pose a seri­ous threat to your health. Chest pain, short­ness of breath, severe bleed­ing, poi­son­ing and major trauma such as bro­ken bones and head injury are among con­di­tions that should be treated in an emer­gency room.

The emer­gency depart­ment at Grady and other Ohio­Health hos­pi­tals are staffed by licensed physi­cians cer­ti­fied in emer­gency care.

Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the emer­gency depart­ment can treat any con­di­tion that devel­ops after hours, but is not designed for pri­mary care. Patients are triaged so the sick­est patients are seen first and co-pays usu­ally are sub­stan­tially higher than those for office vis­its or Urgent Care.

Retail clin­ics

This most recent model of health­care deliv­ery takes med­ical care out of tra­di­tional set­tings and into the com­mu­nity at places such as phar­ma­cies, super­mar­kets and depart­ment stores.

Ohio­Health recently part­nered with CVS Min­ute­Clin­ics to pro­vide med­ical direc­tor over­sight at 11 walk-in med­ical clin­ics inside CVS stores — includ­ing one in Sunbury.

These clin­ics pro­vide quick and easy access to rou­tine care for small med­ical issues such as infec­tions and minor wounds. They also offer screen­ings, vac­cines and well­ness advice. Staffed by a nurse or nurse prac­ti­tioner, they are intended to sup­ple­ment — not replace — your doctor’s office vis­its and be used when you are unable to see your doctor.

Dr. Jes­sica Long is a board-certified fam­ily med­i­cine physi­cian at Sun­bury Fam­ily Prac­tice and an active mem­ber of the Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal med­ical staff.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Jan 26 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.