Quality & Patient Safety

Urgent care centers prove their worth in wake of long ER lines

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, April 29, 2009

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Lengthy wait times at emergency rooms (ER) around the country have given way to "urgent care centers," alternatives to the ER for less severe ailments, reports the Los Angeles Times. In 2006, patients waited an average of 3.3 hours to be seen at the ER, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Urgent care centers offer those patients who do not have life threatening problems a chance to escape these long wait times and be treated medically faster than they would be by waiting to see a primary care physician.

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