You leave urgent care with your script, perhaps with a wrapped-up ankle or some advice to drink more fluids. It feels like an instant fix, and frequently is one. Follow up with your primary care provider pcp after an urgent care visit to wrap up loose ends with your treatment. They’re much more important than you realize.
Importance of Follow-Up Care After an Urgent Care Visit
Urgent Care Is Not the End Treatment Point
Urgent care is about treating you for what’s happening with you. You have a sinus infection, an open cut on your arm, and an unexpected rash that appeared out of nowhere. The urgent care team stabilizes you and guides your recovery moving forward.
They don’t see the complete storyline unfolding with your overarching health status because most facilities don’t keep records. A follow-up with your primary health care physician or a specialist fills in the details that urgent care failed to address.
Perhaps you were given treatment for a one-time high blood pressure reading. You receive medication and the usual “follow-up” advice. The symptoms remain ignored without taking this second step to address the underlying reason. Could it be stress, poor medication control, or dietary issues?
Talk to your doctor and establish a care plan. You can discuss test results or blood tests done at urgent care. Your primary care doctor will be the one to manage chronic conditions or handle chronic disease management.
Your Body Does Not Stop Working When You Exit the Clinic
Healing does not follow any schedule. Symptoms can develop in the days immediately following your appointment. You feel fine on day one, but suddenly worsen on day five.
Unless you’re logging your health condition with a PCP who’s familiar with your medical history and on the lookout for patterns, your condition could regress unnoticed.
Side Effects and Medication Misfires
Urgent care centers typically prescribe temporary medication protocols, and these scripts come with a host of side effects. Perhaps you begin to feel:
- Nauseous
- Experience strange dreams
- Encounter other adverse effects
What happens if you experience a side effect not discussed during your ten-minute discharge consultation? Without visiting your PCP, there’s no way to modify or alter what you’re taking. A follow-up is essential for your overall health.
A follow-up is not about just checking on your vital signs—it’s readjusting your treatment. You can ask the doctor questions that didn’t occur to you during your first consultation and diagnosis.
Mental Health Tends to Be Overlooked
Urgent care is not the place to discuss burnout, stress, or emotional well-being. But there are times when mental health problems manifest into physical symptoms. Chest pain can turn out to be a panic attack. Stomach issues can be anxiety-related instead of caused by a viral infection.
If the urgent care team treated the symptoms without probing deeper, you may be left with more going on below the surface than you realize.
This is when follow-up treatment becomes more than just checking boxes on a patient chart. A therapist or primary care physician can explore the stressors driving other physical problems with you.
Avoiding the follow-up step in your treatment could see your symptoms resurface. Don’t get stuck in a cycle of declining health that could have been easily resolved with a follow-up visit to your PCP.
The Billing and Coverage Aspect Nobody Wants to Discuss
You don’t want to deal with paperwork when you don’t feel well, but insurance does need verification of follow-up on chronic problems. Not doing so could flag your claims. Your insurer can deny or reject them, and it can become an administrative nightmare.
Many people don’t know that some services aren’t covered unless continuity of care is documented. If your visit to the urgent care is coordinated with a follow-up with your PCP, your case history is easier for assessors to approve. Don’t get stuck on the phone fighting with them about your copays.
You Are Worth More Than a Hasty Healthcare Solution
Urgent care is terrific when the speed of treatment is essential. It makes medical treatment accessible and available when you need it most. Once the chaos of the moment simmers down, you owe it to yourself to make an appointment with your primary care physician for a follow-up. You’re making a choice that will impact your long-term health narrative.
Missing that follow-up appointment could save some time and money in the short term. But along a long enough timeline, it means:
- Fewer unexpected flare-ups
- Fewer complications
- Better insight into your health
It all begins with reaching out and making that follow-up appointment.
Our Urgent Care Walk-In Clinics in Omaha, Bennington, West Omaha, Rockbrook, Crossroads & Bellevue, NE
Our staff works to provide prompt, personal, and professional care for all of our patients. We strive to provide the attention patients need in as quick a time as possible. Urgent Care Clinics in Omaha & Bellevue, Nebraska has three locations in the Omaha metropolitan area. Our three walk-in clinics are:
- Rockbrook Urgent Care
- Crossroads Urgent Care
- Bellevue Urgent Care
- West Omaha Urgent Care
- Bennington Urgent Care
Disclaimer
The information contained on this webpage is for educational purposes as well as to provide general information and general understanding of the pertinent medical issue only, not to provide a specific diagnosis. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. By using this blog/web site you understand there is no doctor patient relationship between you and the blog/web site publisher. The information included on this site should not be used as a substitute for medical advice from a licensed medical professional in your state. Neither Urgent Care Network, its subsidiaries, affiliates, assignees or successors in interest, nor any other party assume liability for loss or damage due to reliance on content of this blog/web site. If you are experiencing a severe medical issue, you should seek emergency assistance immediately.
