What is Orthopedic Urgent Care and When do You Need It?

What is Orthopedic Urgent Care?

Who Needs Orthopedic Urgent Care and Why?

Most people will get a musculoskeletal injury at some point in their lives. This could be a broken bone, a torn muscle or ligament, or a sports injury. People in this situation may go to the emergency room, only to be sent to an orthopedic specialist for further care. Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid going to the ER in the first place?

This is exactly why so many orthopedists now offer orthopedic Urgent Care after normal business hours. This is especially true since many accidents that require a visit to an orthopedist happen outside of normal business hours. The best thing about orthopedic urgent care is that you can get the care you need right away.

At an orthopedic urgent care clinic, you won’t be pushed aside when more serious, life-threatening emergencies come in as you might be in the emergency room. People who have had a heart attack, stroke, and other serious health problems will go to the emergency room, so it makes sense that a person with a sprained ankle will be treated faster at an orthopedic Urgent Care clinic. You also have less of a chance of getting someone else’s contagious illness at an orthopedic urgent care facility.

Benefits of Orthopedic Urgent Care

1. Specialized Care: The biggest benefit of orthopedic urgent care is that you will get care from a board-certified orthopedist or orthopedic surgeon who is trained to treat your type of injury
2. Modern Equipment: Because an orthopedic walk-in center is already set up for these kinds of injuries, it will have specialized equipment to take care of most orthopedic problems right away. The most up-to-date technology will also be used, so you can be sure to get great care and results
3. Reduced Wait Times: When you are hurt and need help, convenience is very important. You won’t have to wait as long as you would in an emergency room, which is true of most specialized centers. Emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If the ER is busy, orthopedic injuries could make you wait for a while
4. Affordability: Because emergency rooms need specialists all day and night, they have to charge more for rooms, medicines, and treatments, which usually leaves you with a big bill. Most of the time, the doctors in the emergency room are not experts in orthopedics. This means that you will probably need to see an orthopedic doctor again for your injury

Orthopedic Urgent Care vs. Regular Urgent Care

Usually, an urgent care center is in a retail space, and walk-in patients with many orthopedic injuries, like broken bones or sprained ankles, are sent to another health care provider in the area, like an imaging center or an orthopedic specialist.

Orthopedic walk-in centers, on the other hand, are usually part of larger medical or orthopedic facilities and serve as an entry point to an orthopedic practice. Some hospitals offer ortho emergency services as well as regular care centers as a way for people to get hospital services.

Even though both types of walk-in centers treat orthopedic injuries, only orthopedic emergency centers are designed to treat both short-term and long-term injuries to the muscles and bones. You are not in line with or behind someone who is sick, like with the flu or an upset stomach.

The bottom line is, that people who work in Orthopedic Urgent Care are trained to deal with injuries to bones, muscles, and joints. They treat people the same day, take X-rays on-site, and, if needed, set up follow-up care with an orthopedic specialist. Even if you go to urgent care, they will send you to an orthopedic specialist, so you might as well skip the middleman and get specialized care right away.

When to Visit Orthopedic Urgent Care

One thing is for sure: you’re hurting from your fall. But does the pain need to be looked at right away by a specialist? Perhaps it can wait until a certain time. It’s not always easy to tell.

If you get an acute orthopedic injury, which is a sudden injury that causes severe or intense pain, you should see a specialist at Ortho Health of KC Urgent Care to make sure your injury is treated right from the start. You should go to orthopedic walk-in emergency clinic for:

• Simple bone fractures
• Any recent injury that hurts when you move or touch it
• Strains of muscles and tendons, as well as sprains of ligaments and joints
• A broken collarbone, a sprained AC joint, or a torn shoulder
• Torn biceps, triceps, or quadriceps tendon
• Wrist and forearm injuries that make it hard or painful to roll the arm back and forth
• Hamstring injuries from waterskiing or “splits”
• Lower limb (foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, and hip) injuries that make it impossible to put weight on it

Things can come up, so our Orthopedic Walk-In Clinics are open late hours to make your busy life easier. An orthopedic provider who cares for muscles, bones, and joints can treat you without a referral or an appointment.

Have You Suffered an Orthopedic Injury?

Here at Orthopedic Health of Kansas City, our team of orthopedic specialists is ready to help you start your road to recovery. If you are experiencing an orthopedic injury similar to those discussed in this blog, visit one of our two Orthopedic Urgent Care locations, or reach out to us to schedule an appointment.